The head of the Masters Champions League (MCL) has assured players that their payments from the inaugural edition of the tournament will be paid in full.
On Thursday, the world’s body for player rights, Fica, issued a statement raising concerns that only the players of one team – the Gemini Arabians, eventual winners – had been paid in full as per their contracts.
A significant number of players, Fica said, who participated in the league earlier this year in the UAE had yet to be paid.
“We understand it is a new event, however, the event finished more than three months ago, and the situation is entirely unacceptable,” said Fica’s chief executive Tony Irish.
Zafar Shah, the founder of the veterans’ Twenty20 league, pointed out, however, that the other five franchises had made payments to their players.
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"The statement that only one team has been paid is not correct," Shah told The National. "The other franchises have paid their players but it is only the last batch of payments that have not been done yet.
“This is a league that will look after the interests of retired players and the payments will be made.”
The franchises had agreed to pay all players in three phases – one upon signing, one during the season and the last at the end of the tournament before the players left. According to the contracts, franchises had to ensure that full payments were made to players within 30 days of the end of the tournament.
Shah said he had been in contact with Fica and the franchises throughout and was pushing the franchises hard to make the payments.
During the season, reports had emerged at one stage that some captains had refused to continue playing until they were paid as per the agreements they had signed.
The organisers of the league had to step in and fulfill what should have been the duty of the franchises by making some of the payments to ensure the league continued. At the time organisers said these were inevitable “teething issues” for such a venture.
That was one of a number of issues in the first season. The league also ran into trouble with a few international boards because of its ambiguous qualification rules. Initially it was believed only retired international cricketers would be allowed to take part though very soon it became clear that many of the players signing on were not retired but out of favour and merely looking for another Twenty20 league to play in.
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