Sports
Cricketers to receive paycheque from ICC
Nepali cricketers, who have been under the central contract of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), will receive their salaries they have not received for the last 16 months.Nepali cricketers, who have been under the central contract of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), will receive their salaries they have not received for the last 16 months.
A total of 27 contracted players have not been getting their salary after the CAN ran into dispute followed by the ICC’s suspension of the country’s cricket governing body in April 25 last year. ICC had suspended the membership of CAN citing a disputed election and government interference.
A board meeting of the world cricket governing body that concluded on Thursday in Dubai approved it’s Development Committee’s recommendation of paying salaries to the contracted players. “The ICC Board also agreed to a recommendation from the Development Committee to pay the outstanding salaries to national contracted players whilst the Cricket Association of Nepal is suspended and undergoing constitutional reform and reinstatement process,” ICC said in a media release.
The players will receive the paycheque from the ICC fund which CAN is supposed to get. ICC has been halting the fund for Nepal since the end of 2014 due to poor governance and dispute in the CAN. The Advisory Group formed by the ICC for the constitutional reform and reinstatement process had requested the ICC Development Committee to pay salaries to the players.
“It was our concern that the players were not receiving their salaries for a long period of time. We had initiated through the Advisory Group and asked ICC member Imran Khawaja to play them the salaries,” said Pawan Agrawal, Secretary of the Advisory Group. Khawaja currently looks after the ICC Development Committee.
National team skipper Paras Khadka said it was a welcome move from the ICC. “Its a good news for all the players who have central contracts. If the players don’t receive their salaries then its going to be tough for them. This is probably a big relief for us. We had talked to Khawaja about the matter during Nepal’s World Cricket League Championship match against Kenya and he stood up to his promise,” said Khadka.
While 22 players were under central contract of CAN before its suspension, five more players were added to the list post ban. Sandeep Lamichhane, Sushan Bhari Shrestha, Dipendra Singh Airee, Sunil Dhamala and Prem Tamang are the other five. It is not clear how many players are going to receive salary from the ICC.