We don’t want your refunds, disgruntled franchise tell Cricket SA

Despite trumpeting the establishment of a new T20 tournament two weeks ago, Cricket South Africa (CSA) will reportedly still have their hands full dealing with the fallout from last year’s T20 Global League fiasco.

According to ESPNCricinfo, the Durban Qalanders – one of the eight franchise owners in the failed venture – are considering legal action against the local governing body.

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The Pakistan-based company, which also owns the Lahore Qalanders franchise in the Pakistan T20 Super League, have accused the CSA board of “abusing their franchise rights agreement”.

CSA, who have already lost a staggering R180 million, are currently involved in an expensive exercise of refunding each franchise its R3.5 million deposit as well as interest of 3.5%.

The federation is also understood to have offered to pay the investors approximately R2.5 million for the expenses they might’ve incurred before the tournament was postponed in October 2017 due to financial and logistical problems.

That will push CSA’s losses up to about R212 million.

But it’s the reimbursement of those expenses that have the franchise owners fuming.

“To our surprise we now read that CSA and SuperSport have signed a deal for yet another T20 venture and we were asked to take the refundable (deposit) back without any explanation,” Qalandars CEO Sameen Rana told the specialist website.

“This is a serious breach of trust and contract with us. We do not want our refundable money back, but we require CSA to fulfill the agreement they have signed with us. We simply need CSA to respect the agreements around the awarding of the franchise to us, which they themselves have given to us in perpetuity. I do not agree to this refund as condition to give up my rights so we will challenge CSA via legal proceedings.”

The Qalanders had already set up an operations office in Durban and recruited staff extensively.

The report, however, also states that CSA still considers the franchise owners as “partners”, specifically if the new T20 tournament allows for equity to be bought in the new teams.