CSA dismisses IPL 'missing funds' claim

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has refuted allegations that funds amounting to more than one million US dollars from the staging of the 2009 Indian Premier League tournament have disappeared from its coffers.

CSA president Mtutuzeli Nyoka had claimed that R68 million had disappeared from CSA funds and requested a probe into IPL bonuses worth R4.7 million that were paid to some CSA staffers.

CSA, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the money had been received from the Board of Control for Cricket in India as the running cost of the Twenty20 league hosted by the country two years back, media reported in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

"All cash relating to these costs were not included in the income statement of CSA as they were not part of CSA activities," CSA said.

"CSA merely acted as a conduit for BCCI. CSA acted as a cash funding mechanism for the BCCI. These transfer ins and outs were recorded in an intercompany account (not a suspense account)," it said.

The claim of the "missing" funds had been made in an affidavit by Nyoka to the South Gauteng High Court, the cricket federation confirmed.

Nyoka was fired by the CSA board soon after he levelled the charges but was reinstated as the president of the board on Friday after the court found his dismissal unlawful and to be set aside.

Soon after the judgment was made, the federation had announced that it would appeal. The federation reiterated that it had been expected to provide funding to stadiums at certain costs on behalf of the IPL in a conduit capacity.

"At the date of signing the heads of agreement for the IPL, the anticipated stadium running costs to be funded via CSA was US $2.5 million.

"As per the agreement, these costs were to be reimbursed by the BCCI, thus no expense relating to the above was recorded in the books of CSA to the extent that the amounts were reimbursable and also stadium-related.

"However, any other expenses not in accordance with the host agreement required that CSA wished to recover would need agreement by both CSA and BCCI.

"The anticipated stadium cost well exceeded the agreed US $2.5 million and thus there were further negotiations between CSA and the BCCI," the federation emphasised.

The BCCI remitted cash to CSA, to fund all other event related costs which included stadium bumper costs, advertising and marketing, CSA said.

"The majority of CSA board members concur with these findings. The IPL accounts have been audited," it added.