Dean Kino resigns from CA, CLT20 posts

Dean Kino, Cricket Australia's general manager of legal and business affairs and a key figure in the Champions League T20, has resigned from his posts. Though Kino's departure comes a few days before the sixth CLT20 begins, the organisers believe the tournament will not suffer.

Besides holding a post in CA, who are stakeholders in the CLT20 along with the BCCI and Cricket South Africa, Kino served as a member of the CLT20 governing council and as director of legal and business affairs. He was the face of CA at the tournament.

Kino's departure led to a delay in the announcement of three key CLT20 committees. Until 1215 GMT on Monday, the CLT20 website said its committee members were yet to be confirmed. About 90 minutes later, the technical committee, code of behaviour committee and medical committee were updated, less than five days before the first qualifying match in Raipur on September 13.

ESPNcricinfo understands Kino has been replaced with CA chairman Wally Edwards on the CLT20 governing council. "All organisations go through attrition and new people come in," a BCCI official said.

Kino, along with IPL chief operating officer Sundar Raman, was vital to the CLT20. He was considered the brain behind the player contracts and financial arrangements with the participating teams. According to an IPL franchise official, Kino was as important as Raman to the CLT20 set-up. He was called, "a pretty key person, being the head of legal and commercial matters."

Kino was also an important link in the relationship between the BCCI and CA, working alongside Edwards, Raman, N Srinivasan and the ECB chairman Giles Clarke for the recent constitutional changes in the ICC. He played a key role alongside CA's general manager, media rights Stephanie Beltrame and chief executive James Sutherland on the board's current television rights deal, which reaped A$590 million and secured Big Bash League coverage on the free-to-air Ten Network in Australia.

Having departed CA last week, Kino is believed to be planning the start-up of his own sports law consulting business.