Afghanistan Cricket Board slapped with a lawsuit claiming $15 million for breach in contract

The Afghanistan Cricket Board [ACB] has been dealt with a body blow after a company that had acquired the rights to stage the 2019 edition of the franchise-based Afghanistan Premier League, filed a lawsuit against them in a London court claiming 15 million US dollars.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board has postponed the 2019 edition of the APL after the franchise-based competition’s commercial partners failed to pay them the rights money. The ACB had terminated the agreement, citing the concerns over the integrity of the people associated with their partners, Snixer Sports.

The official cited that the Afghanistan Cricket Board has no justification to cancel as large investment, especially when they were the partners without having any sort of home advantage.

“A company that acquired the rights to hold the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) in 2018 has filed a lawsuit at an arbitration court in London against the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), claiming 15 million USD vide their agreement over Afghanistan Premier League dated 03-/04-2018,” a report in the Dawn said.

The official further said that they were left with no other option than to resort to legal remedies against the biased and illegal conduct of the ACB.

“We strongly believe in the potential the talent, enthusiasm and the love for cricket the people of Afghanistan have. In our endeavour to safeguard the same, we were left with no other option but to resort to legal remedies against the biased and illegal conduct of ACB,” an official of the management company, Snixer Sports said as quoted by Dawn.

War of words ensue between Snixer and Afghanistan Cricket Board

The official added: “Each franchisee spends close to 1.5 million USD per team and with 5 teams it’s 7.5 million. Around 2 million will be spent by promoters every season to sustain the league, which pushes the total league cost to around USD 10 million per season. There is no market due of APL season 1 and Snixer has cleared 100% market payments in 60 days of the league commencement despite facing losses of over USD 3 million in the inaugural season,” 

The official also refuted the claims by the Afghanistan Cricket Board and said that there has been no material breach on their part.

“End to end dependency of the league was on investors and they never shied away. A new tender issued by ACB also suggests that the board is financially not capable of running the league themselves. We deny any/all allegations labelled against us by Afghanistan Cricket Board and want to place it on record that there had been no material breach by us. The allegations over questionable “integrity” by ACB with respect to ICC, ACU is defamatory,” the official concluded.

Responding to the claims, Afghanistan Cricket Board clarified that the reason behind terminating the tournament was because of Snixers’ inability to pay the dues as per mutual agreement.

“Snixer Sports and people connected to them possessed a severe risk to the integrity of the league. The ICC Anti-Corruption Unit is aware of these risks and is investigating several cases,” Mohammad Ibrahim Moman, ACB spokesperson was quoted as saying by Dawn.

“The ACB is happy that they claimed because we don’t have to pay them, in fact, they (Snixers) owe ACB dues of the last (APL) season. They were a risk for APL integrity as well, first of all, they have to clear our dues and then our legal team will deal with their legal team or with the court as required,” the ACB spokesperson concluded.