JOIN USThe only Gaikwads that Maharashtra knew so far were the Gaikwads of Vadodara, who had been there since the times of the Peshawas as their representatives.
The Gaikwads of the Kochi team were not known for either their wealth or fame. But now the limelight is on Shailendra Gaikwad, CEO of Rendezvous Sports World Ltd, who led a consortium to bid successfully for the Kochi franchise.
Shailendra, alias Pradeep, is just 38 years old and holds equity along with his mother Puspha and father Kisanrao in the Kochi IPL team, which was won for a staggering bid of USD 333 million (Rs 1533.3 crore), on March 21.
The Gaikwads own a palatial bungalow ‘Pushp’ in Solapur and their name is now synonymous with everything about cricket in that town. Kisanrao retired as an executive engineer from the irrigation department.
Shailendra, a gold medalist of Walchand Engineering College, has also launched Pushp Cricket Academy in Solapur and organised several high profile events involving top Indian cricketers. His major achievement was flying in cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and Dilip Vengsarkar for the wedding his his sister Pratibha three years back.
Shailendra seldom visits Solapur and mainly operates from Mumbai, but nobody seems to have his cellphone or residential address.
Interestingly, Shailendra’s brother Ravi is an Assistant Regional Transport Commissioner in Mumbai, but was recently transferred to Beed after his name came up in a motorcycle import scam. The two brothers are not on speaking terms, although both have good contacts with the cricketing world.
Shailendra, who also is a distributor of South Indian films and ran a delearship of Mahindra vehicles in Solapur, holds 26 per cent equity in Kochi franchise through his firm Rendezvous, which his close friends find hard to believe.
But not his cousin Satyajit Gaikwad, spokesman of Rendezvous. According to Satyajit, who is fighting the Gaikwads’ battle in Delhi, eight investors had come together to raise Rs 46 crore to pay the IPL as minimum guarantee money when the bid was finalised.
Bid agreement
As per the bid agreement, the consortium will have to pay Rs 150 crore per year to the IPL, so that total Rs 1,500 crore are to be paid in 10 years. In this year, after the payment of Rs 46 crore, the consortium will pay the balance amount in January and March 2011.
Rendezvous has a 26 per cent stake in the Kochi team while Anchor holds 27 per cent, Parinee has 26 per cent, Film Walas hold 12 per cent, builder Anand Shyam holds 8 per cent, and a Kochi entrepreneur Vivek Venugopal holds 1 per cent, Satyajit Gaikwad went on record.
Another investor in Rendezvous is Jayant Kotalwar of Latur. His brother Hemant Kotalwar is a 1996 batch IFS officer and was the Regional Passport Officer in Mumbai. He is currently the Director at Tharoor’s office in the external affairs ministry./
According to sources, 37.6 per cent of Rendezvous equity is held by Kisanrao, same equity by Pushpa Gaikwad and only 0.1 per cent by Shailendra. The remaining equity is divided among Tharoor’s close friend Sunanda Pushkar, Jayant Kotalwar, Mohan Agrawal and Pooja Gulati.