NEW DELHI: Sportzlive Entertainment, commercial rights holder of the Premier Badminton League, has reportedly served a termination notice on Sahara Adventure Sports Limited (SASL), owner of the Awadh Warriors team in PBL, over its failure to deposit the franchisee fee amounting roughly to Rs 35 million.
In its response to the notice, sent late last month after several reminders, SASL, the sports subsidiary of the financially embattled Sahara India Group, has requested the Badminton Association of India (BAI) and Sportzlive to give it a week’s time to make the payment, The Tribune, quoting sources close to the developments, reports. According to the daily, Sahara has requested that it be allowed to pay the fee in three installments.
For the record, SASL had bought the Lucknow-based franchise of PBL in 2013. The ball is now in BAI and SportzLive’s court on whether to accept Sahara’s terms or terminate the team.
A similar situation had arisen with VPVS Sports Pvt Ltd, owners of former PBL champions Chennai Smashers, as well, The Tribune reports. However, the matter was resolved after VPVS Sports paid the fee.
PBL is not the only league that SASL has had payment issues with. It had defaulted on payments in Hockey India League too, where it owns two franchises – UP Wizards and Ranchi Rays. It had failed to make payments to their players and coaching staff after the 2015 edition of the tournament, the daily further reports.
According to The Tribune, last year, too, there were reports about the players and coaching staff of Ranchi Rays facing some issues.
