Sahara made the shock decision to terminate its sponsorship of the national team and withdraw its financial backing of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Pune Warriors at the weekend. The business conglomerate has been the main sponsor of Indian cricket for 11 years and signed a renewed agreement with the BCCI through to the end of 2013 in July 2010. The agreement was worth $719,000 per international match and was a major factor in the BCCI’s reputation as world cricket’s richest organisation.

Sahara has become increasingly frustrated with the governance of Indian cricket and has cited numerous reasons for its withdrawal, adding that its “emotions were never appreciated and many genuine situations were not given due consideration at all”. The BCCI has now sought to dampen the concern surrounding the potential exit of its main benefactor by opening channels of communication. A meeting between the two bodies is expected before the end of the week.

“Most certainly, we are ready to meet and sort out the matters,” Srinivasan told Times Now. “We have no problems with that. We do appreciate what Sahara have done. They might have felt aggrieved and did not get what they wanted from the IPL. We had good relationships and so we should sort out the issues.” Asked if he was sending out a message of reconciliation, Srinivasan continued: “Personally yes. I am open to dialogue and BCCI is open to dialogue. We recognise there were grievances on their part but there was no reason to break suddenly.”

The BCCI chief admitted that Sahara’s sudden decision to quit had come as a shock to the Board. He added: “I was surprised when I came to know (about Sahara ending sponsorship). There was a brief conversation the night before the auction. He (Sahara chairman Subrata Roy) expressed that he has been hurt. It was a bit late in the evening and I did not expect they would pull out the next morning.”