What has given rise to hopes of a compromise is that both Sahara and the BCCI have mellowed their stances, since the issue broke out last week. While Subrata Roy has said that he might play Pune Warriors this IPL season in the absence of a fresh bid for the team, the BCCI has also expressed its willingness to look into a few of the aggrieved side’s grouses.

“Both parties have been speaking in re-conciliatory tones and we are hopeful that Sahara might have a second thought on the Team India sponsorship. It is difficult to say what will come out from the meeting between the two heads. It would be a face-to-face meeting between Subrata Roy and N Srinivasan and no other party will be present,” a BCCI insider told The Indian Express. “Both Pune Warriors and the sponsorship issues would be discussed in the meeting. Let’s see how it pans out,” said the official.

It is understood that before the auctions got underway, Sahara wanted Ravindra Jadeja as a marquee Indian player in the Pune Warriors team after Yuvraj Singh was diagnosed with a cancerous growth on his left lung, which ruled him out of the upcoming edition. The Pune team owners informed the BCCI about Yuvraj’s unavailability and wanted to have his value ($1.8 million) added to its purse to be used in the February 4 auctions. But the BCCI reportedly turned down both requests.

The meeting will try and address a few of theses issues, including whether or not the Pune team might be allowed to bid for the unsold players from the latest auction using its augumented purse, and whether the team will be allowed the service of five international players (as opposed to four for other teams).

These concessions may still not be enough to bring the Pune team back on board. With all top players sold out in the auction, it remains to be seen how the losses will be compensated for. Roy has said that captain and mentor of the team Sourav Ganguly will make all cricketing decisions in consultation with the support staff. Asked about this, Ganguly said: “In the end, it’s the management’s decision and it would be premature for me to say anything before the meeting.”

The resolution of the Team India sponsorship issue, however, promises to be more tricky, especially considering the lack of too many other players. In 2009, after BCCI increased the base tender price for the Team India sponsorship to Rs 3 crores per match, it attracted no bids, and Sahara, the sponsor until then, agreed to extend the deal for a further six months as a stop gap arrangement. The board then brought down the base price in 2010, and still attracted just two bids — Bharti Airtel and Sahara, with the latter eventually sealing the deal when they agreed to pay Rs 3.34 crores per match (over 144 to 167 matches depending on the team’s performance in knock-out events), and their contract runs till the end of 2013. One can understand how the two issues are inter-related when one considers Sahara also paid the most for any franchise when it bought the rights for the Pune Warriors at close to Rs 1,700 crore.