India Cements to move Supreme Court challenging CSK suspension

Top sources in India Cements Limited said they held discussions on the Lodha committee recommendations and decided they would approach the apex court seeking relief.

India Cements Limited (ICL), the owner of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) IPL franchise, is planning to move the Supreme Court against the verdict of the Justice Lodha committee suspending the team from the Twenty20 league for two years.

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Top sources in ICL said they held discussions on the Lodha committee recommendations and decided they would approach the apex court seeking relief.

Another senior CSK official, meanwhile, said after the verdict the franchise never expected to go "scot-free".

"When we see the order, we have to check with our legal council what course of action we should take," he told PTI after the Supreme Court-appointed panel also suspended the Rajasthan Royals (RR) franchise for two years besides suspending ICC Chief N Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan for life.

Did the franchise expect this verdict? "See these things are very speculative and I can't answer that. This (IPL case) is something that has been going on for sometime now. We were not expecting to go scot-free, that everybody knows. The suspension is something we thought that might happen, we never said that it won't happen," the official said, while refusing to say anything on the quantum of the punishment.

Asked about the image of CSK being hit after the verdict, the official replied: "That is right (image has taken a hit) but anyhow we will have to find out how best we can comeback."

On the change of ownership, he said it was too early to comment. "The verdict has only come out today and you are talking about selling shares. It does not work like that," he said.

"Why should we (sell the shares)?" he counter-questioned. "If we have to comeback after two years, we will comeback after two years," the official added.

The BCCI's top brass, meanwhile, has called for a governing council meeting on Sunday, July 19, to discuss two options - either call fresh auctions for the 45-odd players of the two suspended teams or find new owners for the teams.