Row brews over T20 league

CSA’s new move upsets franchise

DESPITE the mess the proposed T20 Global League (T20GL) became last year‚ the owners of the Durban Qalandars don’t want their money back from Cricket South Africa (CSA).

Instead, they want their team to play in whatever replaces the competition‚ which CSA say will happen next summer in a new event that will be a departure from the T20GL‚ and they are talking to their lawyers about how to make that happen.

“While we initially welcomed the news that the delayed inaugural tournament will finally be played during November and December 2018‚ we read to our disappointment that CSA has unilaterally decided to exclude the original franchise owners from participating in the new event‚” Sameen Rana‚ the Qalandars’ chief executive‚ was quoted as saying in a release yesterday.

Rana believes CSA are‚ the release said‚ in breach “of the franchise team rights awarded by ignoring agreements and excluding all the franchise team owners”.

“Our lawyers will be engaging with CSA in order to get clarification regarding these new developments with a view of charting a course forward which sees Qalandars’ participation in the new event‚” Rana was quoted.

“We have been waiting patiently for communication from CSA. However since the tournament was postponed last year‚ interaction between CSA and the owners has been almost non-existent.” The T20GL was postponed in October when CSA‚ they said then‚ discovered the tournament would cost them $25-million in its first year‚ or more than R341-million. That figure has since been revised to around R180-million.

TMG Digital understands that seven of the eight owners of T20GL franchises have been reimbursed their deposits of $250 000 (R3.3-million)‚ along with interest of 3.5%.

Asked at 11.52am yesterday for comment on the Qalandars’ release‚ CSA had not responded by 4.15pm.