BPL: Pak players wait for payments from franchises

The Pakistani cricketers who took part in the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League are still waiting for their dues to be cleared by the Twenty20 tournament's organisers.

One of the leading players confirmed that until now, most of the players had only received 25 percent of the total amount due to them from their franchises.

"We are still waiting for something to happen. The point is that because we also have to look at our livelihood for the future there is nothing much we can do except to keep on reminding the Bangladesh Cricket Board and respective franchises to clear the dues," he said.

Another player confirmed that the franchises were bound to clear the total dues of their overseas players 40 days after the completion of the BPL that ended on February 29 in Dhaka.

"That deadline has passed without anything happening. The only payment we got so far as 25 percent of the total dues and that too at the fag end of the competition when the foreign players all got together and protested they were virtually playing for free and had not been paid anything," the player, who declined to be named, said.

He said the foreign players were told by their franchises that as per their contractual obligations, they would get 25 percent payment before the start of the tournament, another 25 percent in the middle and the rest after the event.

"What happened was that most of the foreign players with a few exceptions had got no payments at all until the fag end of the event and the 25 percent was only paid after the foreign players got together and held a meeting with a senior official of the BPL and conveyed their strong resentment over the delay in payments," the player recalled.

"The one reason we are being patient is that as per our contracts the BCB has underwritten that it would b responsible for clearing all payments if the franchises didn't make the payments directly to their respective foreign signings."

Pakistani players signed up for different franchises in the BPL for amounts ranging from $ 25,000 to $ 500,000.

The player conceded that some top stars had only agreed to play after getting 50 per cent of their payments before their matches.

"The good thing is that the international federation of players has also got into the matter and is in touch with the BCB and franchises to release the payments soon."