Ten Sports threatens legal action against Sri Lanka Cricket

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Mumbai
Ten Sports has threatened to take legal action against the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), as the sports broadcaster is yet to resolve the scrapping of lucrative telecast deal with the SLC.

Chris McDonald, CEO, Taj Television, in a letter to Duleep Mendis, CEO, SLC, questioned the cancellation of the deal. The channel does not mind settling for an amicable solution.

"The way to mitigate this problem is for SLC and Taj Television Ltd, which operates sports channel Ten sports, to sit down and amicably discuss potential solutions not for SLC to unlawfully and wrongly terminate our contract based on the siren song of other broadcasters. Any such termination would have severe legal repercussions," McDonald said.

"Any cancellation of contract on grounds, which do not warrant a cancellation, would indeed tarnish our reputation and would cause us immense loss and damage," the letter says.

The multi-million dollar deal, signed with Ten Sports for telecast rights of the cricket matches in the island country by the previous SLC interim committee, was scrapped by SLC on the recommendation of the Sri Lankan government.

"I have instructed SLC to cancel the television contract after receiving the finding of a special three-member committee," Gamini Lokuge, sports minister, Sri Lanka, had said last week.

It may be noted that the India's tour of Sri Lanka, which kicks off on July 23, will take place as scheduled, and is unaffected by the current legal dispute.