On 21 March 2010, Sahara Adventure Sports Limited successfully bid ₹17.02 billion (US$370 million) for the Pune franchise, the highest bid by any company in the history of IPL. The
Videocon Group, an Indian consumer appliance manufacturer, also bid for the team, but were unsuccessful. Along with
Kochi Tuskers Kerala, the team joined the existing eight IPL teams for the 2011 season as
Sahara Pune Warriors, then BCCI wrote to the franchise that the team name cannot be used as a promotion which is against IPL clauses. So they were introduced to the league as
Pune Warriors India.
2011 season Being a new team in the IPL with a fresh auction purse, Warriors bid aggressively in the 2011 IPL auction held on 9 January 2011. They signed a number of top international cricketers including
Graeme Smith,
Mitchell Marsh,
Callum Ferguson,
Wayne Parnell,
Jerome Taylor,
Yuvraj Singh,
Robin Uthappa,
Jesse Ryder,
Angelo Mathews,
Murali Kartik,
Ashish Nehra, and
Alfonso Thomas as well as a number of uncapped Indian players who had previously played for others franchises, including Rahul Sharma,
Abhishek Jhunjhunwala,
Mithun Manhas,
Mohnish Mishra,
Ganesh Gaikwad,
Manish Pandey and
Kamran Khan. Yuvraj Singh was appointed as captain, while former
Australian opener Geoff Marsh was appointed as the team's coach. On 3 May 2011, the Pune Warriors selected former Indian captain
Sourav Ganguly to play for them as a replacement for the injured Ashish Nehra. This marked Ganguly's comeback to the IPL. Ganguly had been discarded by his former team
Kolkata Knight Riders prior to the 2011 IPL auction and was not bought by any of the teams in the auction. Pune finished 9th and second-last that season with 4 wins, 9 losses and 1 no-result in 14 matches.
First withdrawal from IPL and return Sahara withdrew Pune Warriors India from the IPL along with the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team just hours before the 2012 IPL auction was about to start, dealing a major blow to the BCCI and the IPL, which was already reeling after the disbanding of Kochi Tuskers Kerala in late 2011. They also boycotted the auction held on 4 February 2012. The main reason for the withdrawal was due to a problem in the amount of franchise fee to be paid by the Pune team. Sahara insisted that it had bid a huge amount for the Pune franchise under the notion that there would be 94 matches in the 2011 IPL season. As the BCCI later reduced the number of IPL matches to 74, Sahara demanded a reduction in the amount of franchise fee to be paid by them to maintain viable IPL proposition. A week later, the BCCI announced that they have allowed Yuvraj Singh's replacement for Pune Warriors India for the 2012 season, though a deadlock still persisted between the two parties on long-term sponsorship. On 16 February 2012, the BCCI and Sahara ended their differences and announced that Pune Warriors India will play in IPL 5. The BCCI agreed to give Sahara a total purse of $3.4 million, $1.6 million from the money that they had for the auction and $1.8 million as compensation due to the absence of Yuvraj. It was also decided that Pune could replace Yuvraj with one player, whose fees would be up to $1.8 million. IPL's trading window was extended up to 29 February 2012 to allow the team to purchase players. Pune was also allowed the compensation of playing 5 foreign players in the squad, subject to the consent of the other 8 franchises. The BCCI also allowed Sahara to have a strategic partner in the franchise. Pune's new stadium would be allowed to host one of the play-off matches, provided
Royal Challengers Bangalore gave consent, because according to a BCCI rule, the right to host the play-off matches is given to the finalist of the previous edition. (RCB were the runners-up in the previous tournament). BCCI agreed to negotiate with Sahara regarding the amount of franchise fee to be paid and also agreed to start arbitration proceedings for the same. He was also made part of the coaching staff as a mentor. Former South African fast bowler
Allan Donald and former Indian batsman
Praveen Amre were also roped in as bowling and batting coaches respectively, replacing Marsh who had resigned to become the Sri Lankan coach. leaving the franchise without a captain. In the auction which was held on 3 February 2013, Clarke was bought back by the franchise for $400,000. The team also bought international players like
Ajantha Mendis and
Kane Richardson and signed domestic players like
Abhishek Nayar,
Tirumalasetti Suman,
Ishwar Pandey,
Parvez Rasool and
Udit Birla for the 2013 season. The franchise also swapped a player with the Delhi Daredevils, trading Nehra for
New Zealand batsman
Ross Taylor. Yuvraj also returned to the team following his recovery from cancer. Unfortunately for the franchise, Clarke, who was the frontrunner to lead the team, was ruled out of the entire season with a recurring back and hamstring injury, which was aggravated during the
Australian tour of India held earlier. On 28 March 2013, the franchise named Sri Lankan Test and ODI captain and all-rounder Angelo Mathews as the captain for the 2013 season and also signed Australian batsman
Aaron Finch as a replacement for Clarke. The team's performance in the 2013 season was pathetic and mirrored its performance in 2012 with 4 wins and 12 losses in 16 matches, finishing 8th and second-last in the league. The only matches the team won were against
Rajasthan Royals (home), Chennai Super Kings (away), Kolkata Knight Riders (away) and Delhi Daredevils (home). The Warriors were thoroughly humiliated in their away match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, courtesy
Chris Gayle's 175 not out off only 66 balls and later became the first team in the 2013 season to be knocked out of contention for the playoffs after a loss to Chennai Super Kings at home. Like the previous seasons, the main cause for the team's poor performance was their constant squandering of winning chances and the lack of balance in the team, with more than 30 players being used during the season. The team was the only IPL franchise to use three captains that season. Mathews was sacked as captain following a poor start by the Warriors in the tournament and his own poor form and was replaced by Taylor for the away match against Chennai Super Kings. Following this match, Taylor was also sacked as captain due to his poor form, in spite of the team winning in Chennai, and was replaced by Finch, who captained the Warriors for the rest of the season.
Second and final withdrawal from IPL On 21 May 2013, just two days after finishing its league campaign, Sahara withdrew Pune Warriors India from the IPL for the second time in three years. But Sahara blamed BCCI for the decision to pull out the Pune franchise from the IPL. In a statement from Sahara after pulling out Pune Warriors India from the IPL, it stated that Sahara had to pull out of IPL due to the BCCI's stubborn and disinterested attitude towards the reduction of the Pune team's franchise fee. the decision to withdraw from the IPL was final and it will not return to the IPL even if the entire franchise fee is waived by the BCCI. On 26 October 2013, the BCCI officially terminated its agreement with the team, bringing an end to the team's IPL sojourn. ==Home ground==