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New Delhi, May 1
The sporting empire of Vijay Mallya, the embattled businessman who is trying to avoid being extradited to India, continues to shrink.
Mallya is set to lose ownership of T20 team Barbados Tridents, which figures in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), ahead of the upcoming season of the league. CPL CEO Damien O’Donohoe has confirmed that talks are on with a number of possible buyers. He also said that the new owners of the team would be announced before of the player draft, to be held in London on May 22.
Mallya, who earlier owned IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore and F1 team Force India, is stuck in the United Kingdom, where he is fighting a legal case to avoid extradition to India. He is alleged to have committed bank fraud in India, and Indian authorities and banks are trying to recover millions in unpaid loans from him.
Barbados Tridents have felt the heat as Mallya struggles to stay afloat: The players are yet to be paid in full for the 2018 season, which ended in September. Mallya had taken ownership of the team in 2016.
“That’s obviously been a big headache for us… (but) that issue in relation to Barbados will be getting resolved in the next two to three weeks,” O’Donohoe told Guyana Chronicle. “We will also have a change of ownership which we hope to announce in two weeks’ time and that’s a very experienced owner who is going to come in, and it’s something that we’re obviously excited about and we’re looking forward to a fresh start at the end of this month.”
Disturbing news
Dwayne Smith of Barbados Tridents had criticised CPL over their handling of the matter of non-payment of salaries. “We are unsure about what’s gonna happen. The news about Dr Mallya is even more disturbing. The thing is, we’re trying to get information. I don’t know, but I’ve been trying to get information,” Smith had said in December. “If I sign a contract and I fulfil my contract, I’m supposed to be paid. It is something that is bothering a lot of the players and some won’t speak out. I know I may get bashed for it, but I am one that speaks out and I would like to know what’s happening.”
CPL CEO Pete Russell has assured the players that the issue would be resolved shortly. “We just want to put on record how grateful we are to the patience of the players. They’ve been very understanding,” he said. “For us it’s just the worst possible scenario where you’ve got to assess circumstances where an owner for whatever reason can’t pay players is just not acceptable really. It’s been a process we’ve had to go through and we’re at the end of the process and it’s all positive going forward.” — TNS
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