New Delhi, July 16: The Delhi High court today reserved its order on a PIL by former Union minister N K P Salve and former cricketers Kapil Dev and Madan Lal regarding the contract controversy between Indian cricketers and the ICC before the February 2003 World Cup tournament in South Africa. A division bench of Chief Justice B C Patel and Justice A K Sikri, while reserving the order asked all the parties including ICC, BCCI and the sponsors to file their affidavits on the maintainability of the petition within a week.
The high court had on January 22 ordered that no foreign exchange would be released to the ICC if the apex cricket body debarred India from playing in the championship or imposed any penalty or damages on players or BCCI.
However, the Supreme Court had on January 31 allowed the sponsors including LG Electronics India (LGEI) and Hero Honda to remit foreign exchange for the tournament, subject to the final outcome of the litigation.
At the very outset of the proceedings, the court asked petitioners' counsel seema Bengani if the petition could still be entertained after Indian team was allowed to participate in the World Cup.
Bengani sought to enlarge the scope of the petition saying the purpose was not just to ensure participation of the Indian team in the World Cup; rather a larger issue concerning the game was involved.
Pointing that the January 22 order of the court was made conditional on "any punitive action being taken against the players or the BCCI", Bengani told the bench that ICC was witholding nine million dollar due to the BCCI. Bureau Report