Cape Town - Cricket South Africa (CSA) have insisted that they continue to engage with the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) regarding concerns raised by the player body over the use of the players' commercial rights for the Dream 11 campaign being run during the Mzansi Super League 2.0.
In November 2018, SACA and CSA had signed a commercial agreement relating to the granting of player commercial rights in the 2018 Mzansi Super League (MSL).
Although the fee of R2.5 million was eventually paid this November, SACA released a statement on Tuesday raising fresh concerns over player rights that are directly related to this year's MSL.
That led to CSA releasing a statment of their own late on Tuesday, quoting their chief commercial officer, Kugandrie Govender.
“When the matter was raised by SACA last month, I notified the sales agency of Dream11 to cease the use of the player attributes until a resolution was reached on the issue and conveyed this to SACA. I also requested a meeting between ourselves and SACA to discuss what payments are applicable, and to discuss the issue of Dream11 being a betting organisation or not. I attach e-mails sent to Mr Irish for the sake of removing any doubt as to the start of the engagement on this matter.
“It is not our intention to short-change anyone that needs to be compensated, least of all players who are our very own. To this end, I would hope that we can meet as soon as possible with SACA to bring this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.
“As far as the anti-corruption issue is concerned, we have established that Dream 11 is a skill-based fantasy gaming platform and not a betting/gambling platform. For the sake of clarity, it primarily operates in India where sports betting/gambling is illegal and where fantasy gaming was declared legal by the High Court. Please see https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/playing-fantasy-games-online-not-betting-high-court/articleshow/59925686.cms as an example of many sources of clarification in this regard.”
“We have asked the Dream 11 to cease usage until this matter is resolved in an attempt to amicably move forward with SACA on this issue,” concluded Govender.
This latest setback for CSA comes in a week where the organisation have been under increasing pressure following the decision to remove the accreditation of five South African cricket journalists on Sunday.
They were eventually reinstated.