IPL dispute to be solved through Arbitration

Rajasthan Royals and BCCI have agreed to take the dispute over the IPL franchise's contract termination to an ‘out of court settlement’ also known as arbitrator. Royals moved to Bombay High Court last month after the BCCI terminated the contract with them for the IPL.

Royals' lawyer Janak Dwarkadas told the court, “Both the parties have decided to solve the dispute through arbitration as per the contract terms”. He also said that, “Justice B N Srikrishna will be the sole arbitrator”.

Another IPL franchise, Kings XI Punjab Kings, owned by actor Preity Zinta and industrialist Ness Wadia, has filed an arbitration petition in Bombay High Court challenging Cricket Board's decision to terminate their IPL franchise contract. Kings XI Punjab lawyers told the court that they too seek to resolve the dispute through arbitration before Justice Srikrishna.

BCCI terminated the franchise of both the teams on the ground that they had changed the shareholding pattern without informing the Board or IPL Governing Council.

According to Kings XI Punjab, it is a "deliberate and calculated" move of BCCI with an interest of making large profits by seeking new bids, as the value of franchisees had gone up considerably.

As per the records, the two recent franchise,Kochi and Sahara, had fetched Rs 330 crores and Rs 370 crores respectively to BCCI, in contrast to a sum total of Rs 76 crores by Punjab in Mohali bid in early 2008.

The court then posted the matter of Kings XI for hearing later this month. 

This cancellation of contract of teams will hardly affect the players of Rajasthan and Punjab as they would be put up for bids in auction later as their contract with the clubs ended in September'10 itself.

The issues needs to be solved quickly because the young,budding players then will have a platform to showcase their talent.This surely will give them a good start in their career.