More than one month has passed since Dhaka Premier League ended but most of the clubs were yet to complete the payment for the players in full, said players and the officials.
The DPL payment issue resurfaced on Tuesday as a group of Brothers Union players, led by senior cricketer Shahriar Nafees, met BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury, asking for their dues.
The BCB had earlier promised the players that they will take responsibility if any club fails to clear the payment of players in due date.
Clubs were supposed to complete 100 per cent payment of the players within six weeks of the league, a deadline which will ended this week with the last round of the league being held on June 22.
It was learnt that apart from champions Abahani and third place holders Legends of Rupganj, no club was yet to complete their payment despite they are pledge-bound to do so.
The BCB paid part of the payment of Kalabagan Cricket Academy and Cricket Coaching School, but players from other clubs remained unpaid for weeks.
Brothers Union and Victoria are in worst positions as none of the players of these two clubs received more than 30 per cent of their payment.
‘We have received only 30 per cent of our payment,’ Brothers skipper Shahriar told reporters in Mirpur on Tuesday.
‘We should have received all our payments by now. Whenever we wanted to communicate with the clubs they just didn’t respond though they had assured us they would take steps before the Eid,’ said Shahriar.
Victoria Sporting Club players alleged that the club officials are using different ploys, including bringing a ‘false’ allegation of match-fixing, to deny them the payment.
In a letter to BCB on June 26, Victoria alleged their captain Nadif Chowdhury, senior players Sohrawardi Shuvo and Dollar Mahmood were involved in match-fixing during the league.
Victoria players said that the allegation is baseless and is a tactic to keep them silent about payment.
‘This kind of allegations is made so that we don’t raise our voice for our payments,’ said all-rounder Al-Amin.
‘The club owes me Tk 10 lakh while during Eid they offered me Tk 20,000 for shopping.
Nasir Hossain, who played for Victoria during the last season, said that he owes Tk nine lakh but hardly knows whether he would get a penny from them.
Abu Mohammad Humayun Morshed, head of BCB’s anti-corruption unit told New Age that he did not receive the letter of Victoria about match-fixing, so could not launch any investigation.
BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that the board will take action against the clubs if they fail to comply those within a week.
‘We will talk to the clubs this week and if we don’t get any constructive answers we will take action,’ said Nizamuddin.
‘The players had complained about four clubs. The board paid two clubs [Kalabagan Cricket Academy and Cricket Coaching School] who ended at the bottom of the table. We are in contact with the other two clubs [Brothers Union and Victoria Sporting Club].
‘The board wouldn’t like to take sole financial responsibility for such a big amount of money. If the concerned clubs don’t take steps, the board will take a stand.’
Nizamuddin said that they are not capable of taking any stern action against the clubs as they did against Bangladesh Premier League franchises, which is a commercial venture.
‘BPL is a franchise-based tournament, and the franchise has some obligations while the board can take action quickly,’ he said. ‘Clubs are a large stake-holder in the board, so we want to settle things amicably.’
-With New Age input
