In Kochi free equity pie,another MoS MEA link: Directors brother

Jayant Kotalwar has 1.6% of the 25% free equity its value is about Rs 5.8 crore.

Also,curiously,one of the key men behind the Kochi team,Shailendra Gaikwad,CEO of Rendezvous Sports World which has a stake in the team,has launched a campaign in his hometown of Solapur to promote a summer cricket camp using large images of Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar.

Shailendra Gaikwad and his parents Kishan Gaikwad and Pushpa Gaikwad,have a 19.85% stake in the Kochi team 75.4% of the 25% free equity and 1% of the paid equity. This works out to an estimated value of Rs 292 crore.

A 1996 batch IFS officer,Hemant was posted in Mumbai as the Regional Passport Officer from 2003 to 2008.

Hemant confirmed that his US-based younger brother had a stake in the IPL team but added that he was not aware of the details or if Jayant knew Tharoor since the brothers had not spoken to each other for years due to personal differences.

He will be in a better position to talk about, Hemant said. I played absolutely no mediating role in the matter. I dont know whether Jayant knows the minister (Tharoor) but I never introduced them to each other. In fact,due to some personal disputes between us,I have lost touch with my brother. I dont speak to him anymore.

I am not a cricket fan myself. I think Jayant got into the picture through Shailendra (Gaikwad) who is close to some cricketers, Hemant said. I think that is how he got interested in cricket and eventually got a stake in the IPL franchise.

Speaking to The Indian Express from the US,Jayant sought to confirm Hemants version. He said his diplomat brother had no role to play in the matter and that his longstanding friendship with Shailendra Gaikwad was a key factor to get involved in the IPL.

Hemant and I have different personalities and due to certain differences we do not speak to each other anymore. He had absolutely nothing to do with my association with IPL. Shailendra is a good friend of mine and we share a passion for cricket. I met him during my junior college days when both of us landed in Osmanabad,and we stayed together there. We shared a common dream which has now materialised, said Jayant.

A computer engineer who works for Alcatel Lucent,Jayant said he was a Latur boy who studied at BITS Pilani before moving to the US in 1998. I have had multiple successful start-ups in the US,with my last one being sold to Alcatel Lucent for $150 million. I am currently working with Alcatel Lucent,and have business pursuits across the globe,such as in Brazil and China, he claimed.

Sources in Mumbai,Solapur and Latur said the Kotalwars and Gaikwads were a rare example of middle-class youngsters from small-town Maharashtra who had made it big and realised their dream of rubbing shoulders with cricket stars and now even part-owned a Twenty-Twenty cricket team.

While Jayant met Shailendra during their college days in Osmanabad,their respective older brothers Hemant and Ravi Gaikwad,a Maharashtra RTO officer,got to know each other when when they were at a state institute for students pursuing civil services exams in the mid 1990s. As reported by The Indian Express on Tuesday,the Mumbai address given to IPL by Shailendra was actually that of the government quarters in which Ravi lives.

In Solapur,Shailendra is popularly known as Pradeep and runs the Pushpa Cricket Academy,named after his mother. Locals said the academy seems to focus on training players specifically for the Twenty-Twenty format.

But the Gaikwads claim to fame seemed to come from their proximity to top cricketers in Mumbai,with Sachin Tendulkar and Dilip Vengsarkar even attending the August 2005 wedding in Solapur of Pratibha,Ravi and Shailendras sister.

Sunil Gavaskar,on the other hand,made it to the opening of Pushpa Automotive,another family business which has since shut down. Zaheer Khan and Vinod Kambli have also visited Solapur on their invitation,locals said.

In fact,banners for a summer cricket training camp at the Pushpa Academy office feature pictures of Tendulkar prominently and add that Shailendra is the man behind the Kochi IPL team. But budding cricketers in the Marathwada town do not seem to think much about the camp. They have been running an ad campaign that the academy is going to pick young talent for the IPL. None of us are fools to believe that, said one boy at a local cricket ground.

Incidentally,Shailendra too said there were some tension between him and his brother Ravi and he did not want to involve Ravis name with IPL. Cant a middle-class man try and be a part of a business model like this? he retorts when asked about the controversy surrounding his IPL team and its ownership.

We are a group of investors who have together raised the amount and have nothing to hide. We have not given any of our own money but it is equity we bring in, Shailendra said.

An electronics engineer who says he was fascinated with cricket from his school days,Shailendra also claimed that he had represented Maharashtra in the under-19 category. His wife works for the state government but he says she has nothing to do with his latest venture. I know many international players. My question to you again is cant a commoner enter into a contract like this? My wife is a bureaucrat and has nothing to do with this. Cant I as a husband be part of a project? he asked.