The Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) recent change in ownership could be landed in hot water with the Kal Somani-led consortium preparing for a legal battle. The USA-based businessman, along with Rob Walton of Walmart and the Hamp family, was poised to buy the majority stake in the 2008 Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year before their deal fell through due to a lack of funds.
Earlier this week, it was announced that RR were taken over by the Mittal family and Adar Poonawala for an eye-watering USD 1.65 billion. This comes after the aforementioned bid from the Somani-led consortium fell through, which was valued at around USD 1.63 billion.
There have been a number of reasons why the initial bid from the United States fell through. According to reports, Somani had a one-month exclusive period to make the payment, which they did not honour. However, in their defence, the US-based group stated that they did not receive more than 90 per cent of the paperwork from the then RR management.
“We have had calls this morning with legal and PR in the USA. We are deciding on our PR. A legal letter will be sent today. They slow-dragged it. They continued negotiations in good faith until the last second. With the Walton and Hamp families behind him, money was never an issue,” a source was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz.
Secondly, the current owner, Manoj Badale, who has been with the Jaipur-based franchise since 2008, wanted to remain part of the new setup, which was opposed by the US consortium. However, under the current new ownership, Badale does have a prominent role in the management, keeping him at RR despite the change in ownership.
“We will discuss it with our group if we are going to go publicly on the matter since litigation will be involved. We had queries such as whether the BCCI dues were paid. We wanted to know the status of legal cases. There were 100s of such questions. From our end we have been ready to close for 10 days. There was deliberate delay and then side dealings,” the source added.
RR are currently fourth in the standings, having picked up 12 points from 10 matches this season.
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