Mascarenhas Slaps Damage Suit Against Sunil Dev

Delhi District Cricket Association honorary secretary and member of the Board of Cricket Control, India (BCCI) Sunil Dev has been slapped with a legal notice for causing loss and damage to the commercial interest of Mark Mascarenhas, promoter of sports management company World Tel.

World Tel had snapped up the telecast rights of the last cricket World Cup played in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India.

The untrue allegations about Mascarenhas and World Tel have been made in your capacity both as sports secretary of the DDCA and a board member of the BCCI, Mascarenhas lawyers at UK-based Macfarlanes in a legal notice to Dev have said. They have also said, The allegations have been made deliberately and circulated in such a way as to be calculated to cause loss and damage to the commercial interest of Mr Mascarenhas and World Tel.

 

Dev allegedly had written three letters to BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur, including one dated October 23, wherein he had said that there were business dealings between International Cricket Council (ICC) chief and former BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya and World Tels Mascarenhas which need to be investigated by the CBI.

When contacted by Business Standard, Dev denied having done anything to cause loss or damage to Mascarenhas or World Tel. What World Tel is saying Ive done were communications between me and my president (of BCCI) which were purely internal matter, Dev explained, adding, Moreover, if World Tel thinks there case is so strong, why havent they filed a case in India instead of doing so in London.

Mascarenhas lawyers have said, It is completely untrue... that there is any business deal involving Dalmiya and World Tel or that there is anything involving the deals between the clients and BCCI which could justify any investigations by the CBI. Dev had dwelt on the Dalmiya-Mascarenhas link in reports in Times of India of November 4 and Londons Daily Telegraph also in the first week of November.

Mascarenhas lawyers have counter-alleged that Dev used a government agency in Chandigarh to circulate confidential correspondence so that their circulation would be increased.

We have reasons to believe that it is with your knowledge and indeed intention that confidential letters containing allegations summarised above were subsequently copied to a commercial rival of World Tel in London in order to enable the rival to rely on these apparently authoritative but in fact malicious and untrue allegations in their attempts to persuade BCCI and other bodies to favour the rival over World Tel in future negotiations for TV rights, Mascarenhas lawyers have said.

Dev has been asked to withdraw the allegations failing which action would be taken against him in London courts.