Lawsuit claiming $5 million filed against Afghan cricket board

A lawsuit claiming $5 million has been filed against the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) by a company that acquired the rights to hold the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) in 2018.

The board last year postponed the 2019 edition of APL after the league’s commercial partner failed to pay the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) rights money.

The board had terminated the agreement, citing concerns about the integrity of people associated with Snixer Sports, the partners.

“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, told The Dawn about the lawsuit filed at an arbitration court in London.

“Each franchisee spends close to 1.5 million USD per team and with 5 teams its 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 per cent market payments in 60 days of the league commencement despite facing losses of over USD 3 million in the inaugural season,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the board has stated that they terminated the contract because Snixer Sports failed to pay the dues as per the 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 are investigating several cases,” ACB spokesperson Mohammad Ibrahim Momand said.

“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,” he added.