The players’ draft for the upcoming fourth edition of the Abu Dhabi T10 League took place on December 23 with six Bangladeshi players picked up by teams during the event.
Bangla Tigers, owned by the Chattogram-based FMC Group, roped in Afif Hossain and Mahedi Hasan for the upcoming season, scheduled to begin from January 28.
A total of six Bangladeshi players were picked up during the draft. Maratha Arabians roped in Taskin Ahmed, Mosaddek Hossain, Muktar Ali while Nasir Hossain was picked by Pune Devils.
However, it is still not clear whether the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), who had denied players the No Objection Certificates (NOC) in the previous edition, would issue it this time around.
Meanwhile, there have been allegations of previous edition’s payment irregularities by a few members of the Bangla Tigers staff after the franchise made a massive overhaul in their coaching staff for the upcoming season.
Former Bangladesh cricketer Aftab Ahmed worked as the head coach of Bangla Tigers, Nazimuddin worked as the assistant coach, Nafis Iqbal as the team manager and prominent coach Nazmul Abedeen worked as the team director for the franchise last season. But none have received their full payment of the previous season with the new season already approaching.
“For the past one year they (team owner) have been giving us probable dates to clear our due payments but they didn’t clear it yet. At the end of the day, you also need to realise that this is our profession, and if we don’t get our full wages, it’s difficult for us to continue working. As we didn’t receive our full payment we decided to walk away,” Aftab told the media.
However, Yasin Chowdhury, the owner of FMC Group was shocked by such allegations and informed that due to the coronavirus pandemic, some of the former staff didn’t get their full payments.
“First of all, I would like to say that we have cleared all the dues of the 25 members among the thirty from the previous season. Few of them are yet to receive their full payment. You can even ask them how much they are yet to get. We have paid almost fifty to sixty percent of their payments and the remaining amount was supposed to be cleared but things changed since the pandemic started. However, they will receive their due payments soon.
“The amount of bonus we have given to those staff in the previous season is even more than their actual contract. And the fact that suddenly they are making allegations of payment irregularity is hurting me a lot. I tried to promote them as they are our local stars. But what I received in return is really shocking. The ICC and the Emirates Cricket Board monitor such payment issues and they are satisfied with the way we have handled it,” Yasin told The Daily Star.
