Afghanistan Cricket Board may incur financial liabilities of over USD $10 Million for prematurely calling off APL 2019

In what might result as a major embarrassment for Afghanistan and its cricketing entities, the Afghanistan Cricket Board prematurely calling off the APL, Season – 2 poses a serious threat for the Cricket Board to incur legal and financial liabilities to the tune of over 10 million US$ (78,2500000 AFN).

There had been speculations about the current CEO, Mr. Lutfullah having terminated the contract with the Indian Company Snixer Sports without consulting other members of the Board. Speaking to one of the board members of ACB, who refused to be named, he said that there was no communication sent to any stakeholder or team owners before termination.

He further said that it was foolhardy to call off the league without considering business and legal implications. If team owners and stakeholders sue ACB, we won’t be able to even finance our litigation costs. Our sources with ACB confirm that Snixer Sports has already sent a legal notice to ACB over their action to which ACB is yet to reply.

This can prove fatal for exiting player contracts as well and for their cricketing future. Speaking to one of the senior officials of Snixer Sports, it was learnt that there were allegations over misconduct by few ACB officials and stakeholders in the previous league and the same is under inquiry with ICC, ACU.

“We did seek clarification from ICC, ACU and it was informed to us on record that the inquiry is still going on. We are extremely intolerant towards any such practices which is contrary to the guidelines prescribed by ICC and we been cooperating with ACU to set the record straight. We fail to understand how ACB can be reckless enough to terminate the league without any rationale and over unfounded attributions.”

“Our talks are going on and it is our understanding that the same had been done with procedural discrepancies. We have suffered huge losses owing to such illegal termination and we shall take appropriate legal action to recover the same if our current talks don’t succeed. Afghanistan and its cricket-loving people have been looking forward to the league and it had been a huge disappointment for them as well.”

APL 2019 might go ahead if internal matters of ACB are sorted

Meanwhile, there is huge unrest amongst all the stakeholders over ACB’s action which might result in a long drawn legal battle for Afghanistan Cricket Board against Snixer and existing commercial stakeholders. The drama is still unfolding over speculations of APL season –II somehow happening if internal matters of ACB are sorted.

For a fairly new cricketing association in a sporting nation which has recently started gaining international accolades in cricket, this episode can prove extremely fatal for the scope and future of the sport in Afghanistan. Afghanistan Cricket Board has recently gone ahead engaging Afghanistan’s Attorney General’s office over irregularities in the board.

The sport means a lot to the people of Afghanistan and over recent years, the country has produced many players of international repute. With all such things at stake, ACB’s liability can dent permanent damage to the country’s finances and repute in the international arena.

Disclaimer: This story was collected from a PR agency and CricTracker doesn’t own it