The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Tuesday strongly protested the claims made by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) regarding handling of franchisee event contracts and payment of players from ICC events.
In their recently published ‘Men’s Global Employment Report 2020’, FICA last listed Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) as one of the six franchise based tournaments of the world where players suffer late-payment or non-payment issues. It also accused BCB for not paying the ICC event prize money to its players.
The Bangladesh cricket apex body labelled the report as misleading and misinformed.
BCB indeed opposed the allegations citing the payment issue in BPL as an isolated event while strongly protested the allegation of not paying the ICC event prize issue.
“The BCB would like to clearly state that the only unresolved/disputed payment from the BPL concerns four persons- three overseas players and a coach, of one particular team that had participated in the sixth edition of the BPL held in 2018. This is an isolated case in a tournament where more than 170 local and overseas players and support staff were contracted,” BCB said in a press release on Tuesday.
“Between January and April 2020, the BCB received complaints from the representatives of the players and coach that the franchisee in question had failed to comply with its obligations and did not complete payment. As per the franchisee agreement it was the responsibility of the franchisee to directly pay in full its contracted players and support staff.”
BCB however made it clear they had already initiated the legal proceedings against the accused franchisee, which is believed to be Sylhet Sixers who failed to clear the payment of Coach Waqar Younis and Australian star batsman David Warner alongside other two foreign players.
“Nevertheless, as the regulatory body of the event the BCB had duly inquired the matter and subsequently has initiated legal proceedings against the accused franchisee to realise the pending payment and resolve the issue. It should be noted that the Board has kept constant contact with the concerned individuals and representative(s) who are fully aware of the steps taken by the BCB,” BCB press release further said.
The BCB however came down heavily on the FICA allegation of not disbursing the prize money of ICC events. The cricket apex body claimed they have already cleared with bonus.
“FICA’s media release also points towards Bangladesh as one of the full members which supposedly has not paid its players ICC event prize money. This is a total misrepresentation of facts,” BCB protested.
“The BCB has completed prize money payment to players from all previous ICC events including the last, which was the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England and Wales. It may be mentioned that the BCB has maintained a standard by which players on a number of occasions have received additional incentives from the Board on top of the prize money from ICC events during distribution.”
