IPL owners informed of legal challenge.
Telford Vice / Palermo, Sicily
WHILE not a ball was being bowled in the second ODI between England and South Africa at a wet Old Trafford on Friday, opposing teams of lawyers were warming up for a contest over South Africa’s new T20 league.
In one team’s view, success in the looming struggle would stop the project, in its current form, in its tracks. The other team are confident of beating what they see as a weak challenge and forging ahead to the league’s launch in January.
The drama is afoot despite the positive impetus and apparent stability created by the sale of all six of the planned league’s franchises to IPL owners. Confirmation of that development on Wednesday — the day after Cricbuzz broke the news — sparked into life the owners of one of the franchises of CSA’s first attempt to establish a competition.
Hermis Sports Ventures Limited — who owned the Pretoria Mavericks of the stillborn Global League T20 (GLT20) — claimed in a legal letter to CSA, dated Wednesday, that they were being unfairly denied the chance to be involved in similar ventures, which they say they were granted in terms of a previous assurance from CSA.
At an August 11, 2018 meeting in Mumbai, the Hermis letter says, CSA “undertook to our client (and the other parties present) that in the event that your client intended to operate a T20 cricket league in South Africa in future, our client (and the other parties present) would be given an opportunity to acquire, on a right of first refusal basis, a licence to operate a team competing in the new competition. It was understood that our client’s right of first refusal was not unconditional and would be subject to any conditions which your client, or any special purpose vehicle incorporated by your client, determined at the time.”
In a letter dated August 21, 2018, then CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe — who was at the Mumbai meeting and another in Dubai on August 9 with other GLT20 owners — wrote to the owners to say that, should CSA look to stage another league involving private franchises “we confirm that each of you, as the previous owners, will be given an opportunity, on a first right of refusal basis, to acquire ownership (or part ownership depending on how much team equity is made available for private ownership) of your previous teams. Needless to say, this first right of refusal is not unconditional but is subject to such conditions as CSA and/or the special purpose vehicle which has been incorporated to manage the league will, given the dictates of the financial model then in place, our procurement policy and other relevant considerations, determine.”
Hermis say in their letter that the invitation to bid for franchises in the new league was “sent to an exclusive group of participants and was not made widely available”. They demand that they be given “a reasonable opportunity to submit an application” and that the ownership deals are not concluded before that happens.
Should their appeal be turned down, Hermis would “consider applying” for an urgent interdict to stop the league from going ahead with IPL ownership: “To the extent that this process has already been concluded, our client will consider applying to court to review and set aside this process.”
All of which might make it seem as if the new league is on the skids. But CSA have taken legal advice on the issue, which held that Moroe’s letter to the GLT20 owners created no obligation in law. That argument could be strengthened by the fact that the league will be run by Africa Cricket Development (ACD) (Pty) Ltd, which is half-owned by CSA with SuperSport holding 30% of the shares and Sundar Raman, the former IPL chief operating officer, the other 20%. It was CSA who made the legally questionable promise to the GLT20 owners, not ACD — which did not exist at the time. Should Hermis bring an application for an interdict they could be told to prove damages in due course, and without stopping the league.
Sources close to CSA say they are comfortable the Hermis case has no merit and that they will successfully defend themselves against it. The IPL owners are being kept in the loop, and are reportedly satisfied that measures are being taken to manage the matter.
All the while at Old Trafford, still not a ball had been bowled.
First published by Cricbuzz.
Bulletproof Truth 