A court has ordered the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to pay more than $640 million to former Indian T20 League champions Deccan for illegal termination of the franchise.
The Deccan side, which were owned by the Deccan Chronicle newspaper group, were kicked out of the Indian T20 League in 2012 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for financial breaches.
The action was taken a day before the team's deadline to settle matters, however, and the Bombay High Court ruled on Friday that the termination was illegal and premature, a legal representative of Deccan Chronicle told AFP.
"They have been directed to pay 48 billion rupees ($640 million) plus taxes which might amount to about 80 billion," the legal representative said on condition of anonymity.
"We haven't received the judgement copy yet, only after reading we will decide next plan of action," Hemang Amin, the interim chief executive of the BCCI, was quoted as saying by the Economic Times newspaper.
In 2017, the Kochi team won a similar arbitration case over its termination six years earlier.
The Indian T20 League is the world's most popular Twenty20 league but has been plagued by controversy since it started in 2008, with corruption and match-fixing cases often taking centre-stage.
A spot-fixing scandal in 2013 led to the Chennai and Rajasthan being suspended for two seasons.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Noah Seelam
