Proposed Mumbai T20 league hits a snag as team owner walks out

What’s the story?

The upcoming Mumbai T20 league has hit a major snag as one of the team owners has reportedly pulled out of the competition days before the league starts.

This sudden and unexpected development has left the Mumbai Cricket Association grappling and the board is locked in a race against time to look for a replacement.

The details

If the good folks in Indian Express are to be believed, one of the owners, Naman Developers, which is a city-based real estate company in the city has pulled out of its association with Mumbai North team which it has previously bought for Rs 6.5 crore.

The company seems to be convinced that their approximate losses might be higher than what they had been told before buying the team.

Apart from this, another report in Times of India has linked their withdrawal to the ongoing Nirav Modi-PNB scam.

As a matter of fact, one of the officials in the MCA has confirmed this development.

“Yes, the Naman group wrote a letter to Probability Sports (the company formed by IIFL and Wizcraft to run the league) CEO Kadar Makani today, informing of their decision to back out from the league due to difficulty in arranging the bank guarantee," a top official was as quoted by TOI.

In case you didn’t know…

The city-based league witnessed bidding for six teams and as many as nine bidders took part in the process.

The player auctions are slated to be held on Wednesday, February 27. As per the original itinerary, the competition was scheduled on March 10.

What’s next?

Owing to the aforementioned pull-out, the MCA will not have to look at a replacement and this could mean that the player auctions might well be pushed back to a later date which could also impact the commencement of the league.

Author’s take

While the reason for the pull-out is still very speculative, it provides a lesson to the different franchises and several state units to be careful while launching such T20 leagues.