'Ten sports deal problem will be sorted out'
SLC interim committee chairman is confident that the issue of multi-million dollar domestic telecast rights deal will be sorted out through talks.
cricket Updated: Jul 13, 2008 16:11 IST
In a bid to avoid a legal battle with Ten Sports, Sri Lanka Cricket is now trying to save the multi-million dollar domestic telecast rights deal with the sports channel ahead of the lucrative series against India.
Ten sports has already warned that it was open to all options, including legal action, if the SLC goes ahead with the decision to terminate the new deal that was valid from 2009-12.
The man at the centre of the controversy, business tycoon and former SLC interim committee chairman Jayantha Dharmadasa, under whose regime the deal was signed, has expressed confidence that the issue would be sorted out through discussion.
"We undertook the deal in a transparent way and I am looking forward to meeting the Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge to find an amicable solution to the whole unfortunate issue," Dharmadasa told PTI on Sunday.
The deal was cancelled following the findings of a special three-member committee headed by the Secretary to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports and Public Recreation S Liyanagama.
"I have instructed SLC to cancel the television contract after receiving the finding of a special three-member committee," Sri Lankan Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge had said last week.
Dharmadasa said the deal was reasonable considering there were only two confirmed home series - against West Indies and Pakistan -- till 2012 at that point of time.
