CHENNAI: Hours after Broadcast Sports News issued a press release alleging non-payment of fees by the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), Mahesh Bhupathi, the exhibition tournament’s founder, explained the whole issue. India’s Davis Cup captain even acknowledged that there was a problem but said all dues will be cleared.
“In 2016, one of the IPTL team owners, the Legenderi Group that owned the Japan franchise, turned out to be frauds and their share of the payment close to 8 million was the reason things came spiralling down,” he told Express. “There have been pending dues from the league to players, most of them my colleagues and vendors as well. The management has constantly been in contact with all confirming that when the recovery in any fashion happens the dues will be cleared. I guess some got tired of waiting. It’s been extremely painful in general but we will get it done one way or another, it’s just that these processes need time.”
This newspaper couldn’t independently verify the veracity of these claims.
Earlier on Thursday, BSN’s release stated: “(...) despite considerable patience and understanding from the contributing TV production crew and associated tournament service providers, the fees for labour and associated expenses for the 2016 season remain entirely unpaid. The following year featured a comedy of broken promises and sliding payment deadlines and now in the last quarter of 2018, the crew have finally drawn the line accepting the fact that IPTL, despite its mission statement, has indeed ‘broken the business code’.
“(...) The IPTL has made no attempt to pay for crew expenses such as daily per diems, ground transport or visa costs with the overall loss attached to broadcast estimated to be $900,000.”
The same release even had a spokesperson of the IPTL crew as saying: “What is most frustrating is that the IPTL continued in December 2016 while the management team knew there were insufficient funds available to pay for it. There has never been any form of explanation or apology regarding this to a single member of the crew or the tournament service providers.”
While it was an open secret that a few players were yet to receive payments, one of them, Marin Cilic, who played for UAE Royals in the second edition in 2015, mentioned the issue at the Pune Open in 2018 when asked if there were any delays in receiving payments.
“There were some issues,” he had said. “Just a bad thing it happened like that for an event so successful. I think all things will clear up. Looking overall, it’s very positive for Asian cities where there was not much tennis.”