Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) which is reeling after a deadly match-fixing blow has run into deeper problems as one franchise holder has defaulted player payments in a move which could have far reaching consequences for the tournament and even a player-boycott, sources told “Daily Mirror”.
Franchise holder Basnahira Cricket Dundee has not honoured the payments due to five foreign players who took part in the tournament and SLC sources said that the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) has threatened serious action unless it is settled immediately.
Australian players Daniel Smith, Cameron Borgas and Dirk Nannes have only been paid 50 percent of their promised contract fees by the franchise while two South African stars Charl Langeveldt and Rilee Rossouw have been duped even more seriously.
Langeveldt who has played six Tests and 72 One Day Internationals for South Africa, has received only 25 percent of the promised US $ 20,000 contract fee while Rossouw who had been contracted for US $ 10,000, has not received anything at all from the Basnahira Cricket Dundee.
SLC is reportedly making frantic attempts to contact the franchise owners, but their response is not clear yet.
But with FICA’s patience running out, SLPL is in a delicate position as a public statement from FICA will affect the player participation seriously.
Sources said that Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) which has similar sort of problems has been blacklisted by the FICA which has asked the players to avoid taking part in the player auction for the next edition of the tournament scheduled for December 7. The tournament is to start on January 17.
BPL franchises have paid all foreign players as promised but the local players have not received 60 percent of the promised contract fees to date, nearly an year after the tournament has been completed.
FICA which had their annual general meeting in Colombo earlier this month decided to ask all their members to avoid the BPL to show solidarity with the affected Bangladeshi players.
FICA can easily resort to this action against SLPL which is likely to deliver a cruel blow to the tournament.
FICA Chairman Tim May is reportedly in touch with SLC which is now sporting a red face having earlier made several public claims of obtaining required bank guarantees from franchise owners.
Sandeep Bhammer, Chairman of Somerset Entertainment Ventures which is the SLC’s management partner for the SLPL was very clear about the issue in an interview published on the official SLPL website prior to the tournament.
“What we have done is that all our player contracts are being approved by FICA and also as part of our contractual obligation, each of the franchise owners are required under the respective franchise agreements to provide a bank guarantee to the cricket board, prior to the arrival of the players, reflecting the full payment due to the players” Bhammer said.
“In the event that the players are not paid, the Sri Lanka cricket board will actually go ahead and cash that bank guarantee, which would have been provided to them upfront to protect against any defaults of payments to players” Bhammer added.
However a few days later Bhammer told Cricinfo that franchises were unable to acquire bank guarantees because the process of getting guarantees for each individual franchise would have taken too long and was too complicated. He said tournament organisers had instead asked franchises to acquire a “pay order” for the total amount of player salaries and they had in turn shown proof of these pay orders to FICA.
However, May rejected the claim later in an interview with the website “Island Cricket”.
“This is a complete fabrication. At no stage has any pay order [been] shown to FICA,” May said.
“Despite many requests, neither a bank guarantee nor pay order was ever produced. [Bhammer’s] assertion that it was shown to FICA is an outright and complete lie” he added.
Later, in an exclusive interview with “Daily Mirror” after the tournament, Bhammer claimed that his company had “delivered a bona fide tournament” and “all players have been paid.”
But May was very clear on the FICA position when he told Cricinfo about the importance of the bank guarantee.
“Non-production of these bank guarantees is a major breach of the player contract,” May said.
“The bank guarantees were instrumental in obtaining many players’ signatures to participate in this event.”
“I can categorically state that if the bank guarantees are not sighted by the relevant date for next year’s tournament, we will be recommending players not to travel to Sri Lanka until the guarantees are sighted by FICA and agreed to be in a form suitable for its purpose,” he added.
By Channaka De Silva
Source: Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)