Rajasthan Royals' (RR) The Somani-led consortium is preparing for a legal battle tomorrow, which could put the recent change in ownership in trouble. The USA-based businessman, along with Walmart's Rob Walton and the Hamp family, were set to buy a majority stake in the 2008 Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year, but their deal fell through due to lack of funds.
Earlier this week, it was announced that RR had been taken over by the Mittal family and Adar Poonawalla for US$1.65 billion. This comes after the above bid from the Somani-led consortium failed, which was valued at around US$1.63 billion.
There were several reasons why the United States' initial bid failed. According to reports, Somani had a special period of one month to make the payment, which he did not honour. However, in its defence, the US-based group said that it did not receive more than 90 per cent of the paperwork from the then RR management.
A source was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz, “We have had a call this morning with legal and PR in the United States. We are making a decision on our PR. A legal letter will be sent today. They dragged it out slow. They continued negotiations in good faith until the last moment. With the Walton and Hamp families behind them, money was never an issue.”
Secondly, the current owner, Manoj Badale, who has been with the Jaipur-based franchise since 2008, wanted to remain part of the new setup, which was opposed by the American consortium. However, under the current new ownership, Badale has a major role in management, keeping him at RR despite the change in ownership.
The source said, “If we are going to go public on this matter then we will discuss it with our group because litigation will be involved. We had questions such as whether BCCI dues were paid. We wanted to know the status of the legal matters. There were hundreds of such questions. From our side we are ready to shut down for 10 days. There was deliberate delay and then side dealing.”
RR is currently fourth in the standings, having scored 12 points from 10 matches this season.
Get every cricket update! Follow us: :
Leave a Reply