MUMBAI: Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar announced the termination of his contract with Spartan Sports, the Australian company in which he was an investor and an advisory board member after payment defaults running into tens of millions.
Spartan has courted controversy in the last 12 months over defaulting on payments running upto Rs. 600 million.
Tendulkar came on board in July 2016 after being signed on by the co-founder of the company and Indian entrepreneur Kunal Sharma. Besides him, Spartan had also signed other leading names from the sport, such as India’s World Cup winning captain MS Dhoni, big-hitting West Indies opener Chris Gayle and England’s current ODI and T20I captain Eoin Morgan among others.
Dhoni is said to have been duped in a deal worth Rs. 200 million as the company paid him a lesser undisclosed amount in installments between 2013 and 2016.
A recent court ruling in Australia ordered the sports gear and equipment company to be liquidated, which in turn could affect other players associated with Spartan Sports as well.
Spartan Sports owes creditors to the tune of Rs 600 million and the players could suffer major losses if the liquidation process gets underway.
“He will stall company’s plans to grow sports goods business in India and other Asian countries. While (Tendulkar is the) first high-profile exit from the names associated with Spartan, others like Dhoni and Mitchell Johnson had threatened or undertaken legal action,” a source told news agency Press Trust of India.
“Future of company is uncertain as it stares at liquidation. Group company SSG (Wholesale) Australia is already under liquidation. The company’s efforts to reorganise business after liquidation of group company has not yielded any results,” the source further said.
