Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) was rocked by payment fiasco yet again when Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) claimed that most of the local players are still unpaid.
According to CWAB only Duronto Rajshahi and Khulna Royal Bengals paid the 50 percent amount of the players till date in line with rules set by BPL governing body. Rajshahi though hogged the headline during the tournament when their foreign players threatened to shun the BPL following the payment fiasco, maintained a clean-sheet according to CWAB.
The players were supposed to get the 25 percent of the amount before the start of the tournament and the 25 percent before the completion of the tournament. CWAB on Thursday released the payment status list of the players which indicated that most of the players even did not get the 25 percent of their wages.
CWAB general secretary Debobrata Paul claimed that he personally talked to the players before submitting the payment status of them before the media.
“If you look at the sheet, you will watch we kept some of the players like Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan payment status blank because I could not reach them. What I want to make sure clearly before preparing the list. The players were supposed to get the 50 percent amount at least one month ago but till date most of the players did not get 25 percent and even some of them did not get a single penny,” Paul said on Thursday.
“Only Rajshahi and Khulna paid the 50 percent of the wages though they also did not maintain the deadline clearly,” he added.
The players were due to get their payment through Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) after the first edition of the money-spinning tournament saw much chaos in handling the payment by the franchisees. As the BCB are yet to pay the players that only meant that the franchisees did not submit the 50 percent of the players wages to the BCB.
BPL secretary I.H Mallick had no reservation to admit that some of the franchisees did not clear the amount which left them in embarrassing faulty position.
“What I can ensure is that all players got their first instalment. So far all but two franchisees cleared the 50 percent amount of the players. We’ve to check it out again if CWAB claimed some of them even did not get 25 percent of the wages,” Mallick told the reporters.
He however believed the CWAB made some mistakes while they calculated the amount of the players.
“As per the rules of the auction, any players who would get the extra amount of the highest base price, the 60 percent and 10 percent would go for BCB and Game On’s account while the players will get the rest of the 30 percent. CWAB probably made a mistake in this area,” he opined.
Debobrata however said that it was the mater which should be discussed thoroughly with the BCB and therefore they wanted to meet BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon.
“We sought an appointment of the president and hopefully he will meet us tomorrow. Franchisees and BCB blamed each other for the payment irregularities which created an adverse impact on the players,” he believed.
At the same time, The CWAB will draw the BCB president’s attention towards the Premier League also.
“The first agenda of the meeting will be premier league as it is important for all of the players and then we’ll discuss about BPL’s payment issue,” he said.
Debobrata also claimed that some players are yet to get the payment of the first edition of BPL.
“Jahurul Islam Omee had the due amount worth Tk. 30 lakh from Chittagong Kings in the first edition. Most of the cricketers of Khulna Royal Bengals also did not get the full amount.”
Source: The Independent
