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Cricket South Africa could be drawn into a messy legal battle, with a second T20 Global League (GLT20) franchise confirming it is considering legal action against CSA following the organisation's decision to shelve the 20-over tournament and replace it with a league it will co-own with South African pay-television broadcaster SuperSport. The Nelson Mandela Bay Stars, owned by Dubai's Channel Two and chaired by Ajay Sethi, confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that unless CSA "sorts it out" by "either keeping all owners in the new league or paying us our future profits and damages", the franchise will join the Durban Qalanders in weighing up court action. In a strong statement released on Tuesday, Sethi confirmed the Stars were "very happy" when CSA signed with SuperSport but then found it "shocking to hear that CSA had another agenda by putting owners out of the league". The franchise called it "totally unethical", and said "no federation will do that in any part of the world". Though the Stars have accepted the refund of their USD 250,000 deposit, they insist this was their right because they had "made it very clear to CSA that if they don't give a definite date for the new league, the deposit would be refunded". However, the Stars insist that when the money was paid back to them, they sent communication to CSA, in which they said they believed they had retained their rights as owners. "CSA didn't respond, that meant they had accepted our mail. Hence, by returning our refund, CSA cannot take our rights back as owners," the Stars' statement said. Sethi wants to see the original owners reinstated or paid out and believes cancellation of the GLT20 was caused by "personal agendas" and exacerbated by the departure of former CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat, who conceptualised the tournament and parted ways with the organisation late last September just weeks before the inaugural event was due to take place. "We feel that they terminated the CEO to manipulate the process, this is totally unethical and no federation will do that in any part of the world," the statement read. "Agendas of these few individuals has made all reputed owners suffer the damages." In communication last week, CSA confirmed it had refunded owners' deposits, though the Durban Qalandars had refused to provide banking details or take their money back, and were in the process of negotiating an amount for reimbursement of expenses the owners' incurred. A letter seen by ESPNcricinfo offered the Qalanders USD 180,000 in costs, but they were unhappy with the amount, and they are not the only one. South Africa's City Press newspaper reported that Hiren Bhanu of the Pretoria Mavericks totalled his expenses at between USD 400,000 and 500,000, and criticised the new deal between CSA and SuperSport as a "monopoly". The Benoni Zalmi owners are also believed to be disgruntled with the way the cancellation of the GLT20 has panned out. The three IPL owners, Shah Rukh Khan of the Cape Town Knight Riders, the GMR Group, who owned the Jo'burg Giants, and Preity Zinta of the Stellenbosch Kings as well as Sushil Kumar, a Singapore-based businessman with Corporation City Sports, have yet to make any public comments, though a statement from Kumar is expected soon. Since announcing the launch of a new league earlier this month, CSA has yet to reveal the structure of the tournament and is understood to still be deciding on the number of teams and foreign players. The league is expected to take place in November and December this year. As CSA has indicated before, it could be willing to engage franchise owners again once details of the new tournament have been finalised. "CSA does not intend to debate the matter through the media and as per our last letter to the owners remain available to any party who wishes to engage in the current process of planning the tournament," a board statement said. "CSA indicated from the off set that the key revenue streams must first be secured re broadcasting rights and potential sponsors before detail of the tournament can be finalised. Once that have taken place engagement with other stakeholders will be possible." June 27, GMT 0745 The story was updated to include CSA's response.
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