Cricket: Some foreign IPL stars unpaid, says union

Tim May says BCCI, league failed to answer reminders.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) has not honoured the contracts of some foreign stars and not paid them despite repeated reminders, said the world players’ union.

Simon Katich of Australia and Ramnaresh Sarwan of the West Indies were among ‘a number of players that are owed contract payments’, stated the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA).

“A number of players whose contracts were ‘subsidised’ by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have recently contacted FICA to assist in recovering the amounts,” said FICA Chief Executive Tim May. “Despite numerous attempts by the players to recover these amounts, not only do they still remain unpaid, but the IPL and BCCI have recently failed to respond to communications made by the players and their representatives.”

The unpaid amounts relate to the third edition of the IPL in 2010.Neither Katich nor Sarwan took part in the IPL that year, but remained under contract with the King’s XI Punjab franchise, since they were signed for three years after the players’ auction in 2008.

May hoped the recent appointments of N Srinivasan as BCCI president and Rajiv Shukla as IPL chairman would help resolve the issue. The money-spinning IPL is also facing a government probe for financial irregularities.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2011.