FICA begins legal action over BPL payments

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FICA begins legal action over BPL payments
George Dobell

June 8, 2012

Legal proceedings have been initiated by the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA) against the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the franchises involved in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) following a widespread failure to pay players.

The first edition of the BPL ended in February but, despite repeated assurances and deadlines, FICA has been informed that many players have yet to receive full payment. As a result, the players' organisation has instructed lawyers in Dhaka to file a claim against the relevant franchises and the BCB.

"This is a black and white matter," Tim May, the chief executive of FICA, told ESPNcricinfo. "It was stipulated by contract how much the players would be paid and the date by which they would receive payment. It was also stipulated that, if the franchises couldn't pay, then the BCB would act as guarantors and would make the payments.

"We have been waiting for four months. Deadlines have come and gone and all we have had is a litany of excuses. It has come to the stage where all avenues of dialogue have dried up and the BCB have stopped responding to FICA.

"If it was not such a serious matter, some of the excuses they are coming up with would be amusing. They have said there are foreign currency issues, for example, but even some of the Bangladesh players have not been paid. They keep saying the payments will be made tomorrow, or next week, or the week after, but it has never happened."

May derided the behaviour of the Bangladesh board as "amateurish" and even questioned the integrity of some of those involved in the organisation of the tournament which attracted such diverse overseas players as Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Stuart MacGill and Peter Trego. Afridi, who topped the auction at $700,000, was reported last month as saying that he had been paid.

"We don't know if they have the funds available to make payments," he said. "If we had a relationship based on trust we could understand their issues and agree a timeline for payments, as we did with the Sri Lanka board when they had some cash flow difficulties. But they have behaved in an amateurish manner and we have no confidence in them or their integrity."

Mustafa Kamal, the BCB president, has ambitions to become a president of the ICC, but May suggested that the continued impasse could harm his candidature.

"The integrity of people involved in the leadership of Bangladesh cricket is spiralling downwards uncontrollably," he said. "We have had continued assurances from Mustafa Kamal - a man touted as the next ICC president - but the continued non-payment does not reflect him in a particularly good light."

The episode presents a serious threat to the second edition of the BPL, which is due to begin in January 2013. FICA will take a more uncompromising line when it comes to advice they give players about payment.

"Our advice to players is not to get involved in future unless they are either paid, or they receive bank guarantees, before they board the plane," May continued. "The BPL will probably say that is unreasonable, but they have brought this on themselves. We have been trying to resolve this for months and legal action - which will take money that we could better spend on developing the game - is a last resort.

"Our recommendation this year was for players not to travel until they had received 25% of their payment, but some went anyway. If you have a situation where players don't receive that upfront payment, it is a sure sign that things are likely to go pear-shaped. We have major worries about the administration of the BPL."

 

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BPL set to pay remaining dues to foreign players
ESPNcricinfo staff

June 12, 2012

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) governing council said that the remaining outstanding amounts due to the league's foreign players will be paid very shortly. BPL secretary Sirajuddin Mohammad Alamgir told ESPNcricinfo that they had received a letter from the franchises, which said that within the next two days the $235,000 (approx) in unpaid wages will be settled. A Bangladesh board press release from later in the day also made an assurance, saying that the "BCB, as the guarantor, will complete the payment of the dues shortly".

This was the council's second meeting with the franchises in the space of four days, after the Federation of International Cricketers Associations' chief executive, Tim May, had said the BPL was "amateurish" in their dealings with the unpaid cricketers.

"They gave us in writing that the money will be paid within the next day or two," Alamgir said after the meeting. "We understand that the franchises were new to this [being part of a league]. And they have got into a lot of trouble regarding paying these players because of various issues, but they have committed that nobody will go unpaid."

ESPNcricinfo has learned from sources in the different franchises that there have been incidents of wrong bank-account information from one player, which led to delayed payment, while another was said to have become angry when the franchise belatedly contacted him regarding payments.


While the BPL is trying to keep the international players happy, several local players are as yet unpaid. The franchises have also said that around 30% of the local players' payment remain unpaid and will be settled in seven to ten days. The governing council will confirm the figure of outstanding dues to the local players.

The BPL council's meeting with the franchises was chaired by BCB chief Mustafa Kamal. He had told ESPNcricinfo recently that the issue of unpaid wages has never been a problem in Bangladesh. Overseas coaches too, he said, have never complained about payment.

"We have had foreign coaches working with our team for a long time - Eddie Barlow, Gordon Greenidge, Dav Whatmore, so many names," Kamal said. "We have not defaulted on payments to them, they have never had any complaints."

Kamal said the BCB is "financially one of the richest boards in the world" and recounted the names of overseas players who had played in Bangladesh's lucrative club leagues in the 1990s, including Neil Fairbrother, Richard Illingworth and Ajay Jadeja. "I have always said that if there is a problem with BPL payments because it is a new league and there may be some mistakes, it will be BCB's responsibility and we will pay up instead [of the franchises]."

He said it was important for the BPL to be successful. "Its stakeholders are the players, the fans and the country, and it has benefitted all of these. If it doesn't do well, who will be the biggest losers? The players."