India’s ODI captain MS Dhoni has been duped by an Australian sports company, the Indian Express reports.
The Indian newspaper has learnt that a three-year bat sponsorship deal with Australia-based Spartan Sports has gone sour.
Spartan Sports founded by Kunal Sharma deals in sporting gear and equipment. The company had signed Dhoni for his bat's endorsement in December 2013 and the three-year deal was worth Rs 12 crore per year, the PTI reported.
Dhoni’s management company Rhiti Sports’ legal firm told the newspaper that Spartan Sports had allegedly paid only four installments since the deal was struck in December 2013.
The payments arrived at regular intervals for the first few months after which Spartan allegedly released "small tokens" cheques worth Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.
The newspaper tried to reach Kunal Sharma but he was unavailable for a comment.
Rhiti Sports is planning to take legal action against the company which has its flagship store in Sydney and New Delhi.
"Everything is not smooth and hopefully the matter will be resolved soon," Arun Pandey, boss of Rhiti Sports, was quoted as saying by PTI.
The Spartan Cricket Club, an arm of Spartan International, claims to have top stars including Chris Gayle, Dhoni and Eoin Morgan as its ambassadors and recently Sachin Tendulkar entered into a commercial arrangement with Spartan as an investor and a member on its advisory board.
