BEFORE THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE, AT TAJ PALACE, NEW DELHI Date: 21st November, 2010 BCCI WITNESS NO.4 Mr. SUNDAR RAMAN The Witness Statement dated __________ is signed and affirmed by me and I affirm the contents of the same. X X X Cross Examination of Mr. Sundar Raman by Mr. S.S. Hora on 21st November 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi 1. Mr. Lalit Modi interviewed me following which I met the then President of BCCI after which an appointment letter was issued. I was MD of one of the group companies of WPP Group and interacted with Mr. Modi in that capacity. Upon learning of this opportunity to head IPL, we discussed this, following which my candidature was taken up by Mr. Modi. I was provided a service agreement by 1 Mr. Modi for appointment to this position. I will need to determine the location of the document (service agreement) in order to supply it after seeking the permission of the BCCI, specifically the Chairman of the IPL. 2. I am not related to any office bearer or administrator of BCCI. The service agreement was signed by me some time in February 2008. I have access to Governing Council minutes on request. I give input into the formation of the Governing Council agenda, which is finally prepared by the Chairman. I get a copy of the final agenda once it has been prepared. In general, the final agenda as an item has the minutes of the last meeting but not always necessarily so. I have not been invited to all Governing Council meetings since my appointment. I may not have been invited to attend probably one or two meetings. In my input to the Chairman prior to the preparation of the Agenda, I suggest issues related to the operational side of the IPL. I do not recall whether my contract was approved by the Governing Council two months after my joining. To the best of my recollection, it was ratified in one of the Governing Council meetings. 3. Upon being shown the minutes of the Governing Council meeting of 3rd April 2008, the witness confirms that his appointment was ratified in this meeting. I don’t recall if this ratification was an agenda item. I can check and confirm tomorrow on this. I can’t recall if the agenda and the papers included my service agreement. I can check and confirm this tomorrow. There have been other contracts ratified after signing. It was not because of operational efficiency that contracts were entered and ratified subsequently by the Governing Council. It was not a practice to ratify contracts after entering them. However, depending on the situation, on some occasions there was a subsequent ratification. I gave 2 my inputs for the 3rd April 2008 meeting of the Governing Council. I don’t recall having seen the agenda papers of 3rd April 2008 meeting before it went to the Governing Council. The agenda is finalized and circulated by the Chairman’s office. I am only responsible for the collation and preparation of those parts of the agenda of the Governing Council which relate to items that have been suggested by me for inclusion in the agenda. In addition to this, my responsibility includes anything that related to the operational side of IPL. I do not read the agenda paper all the time before its circulation to the Governing Council. I cannot recall for how many meetings the agenda papers did not come to me. 4. The scope of my responsibility is as listed in the service agreement. I have been responsible for managing the IPL tournament and the brand building and communication part of IPL as well. I am responsible for operationalizing the tournament on the ground and ensuring that things are organized on time. I was corresponding with Mr. Paul Manning with respect to the amendment of the Sony agreement. I was also corresponding with Mr. Ashok Nambissan, lawyer of Sony for the same. I was also corresponding with Mr. Kapil Agarwal of UFO Moviez regarding the theatrical rights and Mr. Kunal Dasgupta for exploiting of 150 Seconds Free Commercial Time. I do not agree that I was involved in all aspects of the IPL. 5. The total staff of IPL is 4 people in addition to me who are Ms. Gauri Gujarati, Executive Assistant, Ms. Poorna Patel, Head of Marketing Services and Hospitality, Mr. James Rego, Director Broadcast services and Mr. Hemang Amin, Finance Manager. They all report to me. Mr. Prasanna Kannan is not a part of IPL now. He was there for a year from the end of 2008 to end of 2009 to the best of 3 my recollection. He was involved in the co-ordination of commercial accounts but not the treasury part. I am aware that he was associated with India Cements Limited. He was responsible for the financial invoices and all contract related invoices during his tenure. 6. Q. All contracts would be sent to him to enable him to ascertain the financial aspects. Is this true? A. The signed contracts received by him would enable him to ascertain the financial compliance part of the contract. 7. As COO, I did not have access to all signed contracts executed. Mr. P.B. Srinivasan is a tax advisor to the BCCI and as IPL is part of the BCCI his role remains the same for IPL as well. He also conducts the internal audit of IPL from time to time. I am not aware that he is internal auditor of India Cements. I am not aware that these gentlemen were brought in by Mr. N. Srinivasan whilst he was the Honorary Treasurer. Neither am I aware when they were brought in. Not every item of income or expenditure passed through the above gentlemen during their tenure. Some of the expenses are directly passed through the treasury office such as salary accounts, petty cash etc. Every item of income and expenditure is covered by the above two gentlemen and the treasury office. I am aware that I am not supposed to be misrepresenting while answering. I take offence to the suggestion that I am misrepresenting any fact. Mr. Modi had no cheque signing power in the IPL. The treasurer of BCCI signs the cheques on behalf of IPL. All expense cheques go through Treasurer’s office except by petty cash. After Mr. N. Srinivasan became Secretary it is incorrect to say that all expenses related to IPL were 4 approved by him. When IPL moved to South Africa all expenses were cleared by Secretary. I am not aware if contracts were entered after obtaining the approval of the president of the BCCI and thereafter subsequently ratified by the Governing Council. I am not aware whether the contracts in South Africa were signed after the approval of the BCCI President and thereafter ratified by the Governing Council. I am aware that direction was given by the BCCI President to execute the contract with the Kochi franchisee. I am not aware of any other case where such directions were given by the BCCI President. 8. I was asked whether I would be able to give evidence in the matter sometime during June / July 2010. It was indicated to me what I have to say in the affidavit. I was asked by the BCCI President about my willingness to give evidence. I don’t recall the date on which the request was made at the BCCI office in Mumbai. There was no Governing Council meeting and I would not be aware if there was any BCCI meeting. I cannot recollect whether it was in the first fortnight of June 2010. The meeting with the President BCCI lasted 20 to 30 minutes. The President asked questions to me regarding the 17th December 2009 Governing Council meeting specifically regarding the ITT for franchisee expansion and I responded to it. 9. Q. What else was discussed that day? A. How does that matter to you. What is relevant has already been given in the witness statement. The rest of the discussion was regarding operational matters of IPL. 5 10. It is not my understanding that I will not depose on any matter not mentioned in my witness statement. My witness statement was prepared by Mr. P.R. Raman, Advocate. I did have a couple of meetings with him prior to the preparation of the witness statement. In my witness statement, I will be speaking the truth and I am not concerned about the fall out of that. I was present when the draft statement was prepared and finalized. However, the last text was e-mailed to me and thereafter I signed. 11. The President of BCCI asked me to speak to Mr. Paul Manning, Mr. John Loffhagen and Mr. Peter Griffiths regarding submission of witness statement sometime in late June / early July and I communicated this to them around the same time in a conference call along with Mr. P.R. Raman, Advocate and Ms. Arthi, Advocate. I had my first meeting regarding the preparation of the witness statement with Mr. P.R. Raman sometime in end July or early August. The President BCCI had asked me to call the above named three gentlemen for a meeting and I did so in the end of May 2010. The document placed in the Governing Council of 17th December 2009 was discussed in this meeting. I do not agree that this was allegedly placed as implied in the question. I do not recall whether the draft witness statement of the three gentlemen were seen by me prior to their signing.