India Cements pleads against cancellation of CSK franchise

Updated - November 16, 2021 07:42 pm IST - New Delhi

File Photo of Gurunath Meiyappan (left) and Mr Rakesh Singh, Joint Director, Marketing, India Cements, at a press conference. Indian cements reiterated its earlier stand that Gurunath Meiyappan was not a ‘team official’.

File Photo of Gurunath Meiyappan (left) and Mr Rakesh Singh, Joint Director, Marketing, India Cements, at a press conference. Indian cements reiterated its earlier stand that Gurunath Meiyappan was not a ‘team official’.

India Cements, owners of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday urged the Supreme Court not to pass any order for cancellation of the Franchise agreement of CSK as it would have serious consequences not only for CSK but for the entire IPL.

In its response to the Justice Mudgal committee report, India Cements said, “other than what has been mentioned about Gurunath Meiyappan, there are no adverse inferences that can be drawn against the CSK, or its owners and its employees.”

It said that an unfortunate attempt was sought to be made to paint this respondent with the same brush as any other person with allegations of infractions such as betting/match fixing against them. It said the legacy built by India Cements for over five decades was attempted to be reduced to nothing by the Cricket Association of Bihar’s (petitioner) unsubstantiated and baseless allegations.

It said “India Cements is entitled to due process both under the Operational Rules and the Franchise agreement. If any orders are passed against this respondent it could have disastrous consequences not only for India Cements but also for the IPL, cricketers, sponsors, apart from million of its fans, CSK being arguably the most valuable and most popular team in the IPL.”

On the panel’s finding that Mr. Gurunath Meiyappan was a ‘team official’ of CSK, Indian cements reiterated its earlier stand that he was not a ‘team official’. It said, “Mr. Gurunath Meiyappan is neither a shareholder, nor a Director nor an employee and has not drawn any salary, honorarium or compensation of any kind from CSK or from India Cements.”

It said “the material on the basis of which the probe committee has arrived at a finding that he was a ‘team official’ has not been discussed in the report or disclosed to India Cements. The material on the basis of which such a finding has been arrived ought to be provided to India Cements to enable it to deal with the same if and when necessitated.”

It said, “assuming without admitting that Mr. Gurunath Meiyappan was a ‘team official’ of CSK, the demands made by the petitioner for disenfranchising the team for violation of Clause 11.3 of the Franchise agreement is wholly misplaced since that provision only deals with acts by the Franchisee itself or its owner.”

It said during the course of investigation one of the allegations that was gone into was whether CSK had brought the game to disrepute in respect of one of the matches played against another Franchise and this allegation had been disproved since no finding had been given in the conclusions.

Further it said on March 28, the court had restrained the employees of India Cements from performing duties assigned to them by the BCCI. Now that there was no adverse finding against India cements or its employees, it was just and proper that such employees be permitted to discharge their duties if any assigned to them by the BCCI.

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