BPL future in jeopardy

FICA, the international players' federation, has advised cricketers against taking part in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), throwing the future of Bangladesh’s top Twenty20 competition in jeopardy.

It pointed out that it had no choice but to suggest players to not participate in the tournament because of prolonged non-payment of fees to the players who participated in the past editions.

ESPNCricinfo says a handful of players still wait on their pay clearance of BPL 2013.

However, the issue is a recurrence of what happened in the 2012 edition of the competition and that puts the organisers in the dock.

“Whilst a few players have received full payments from their participation in the 2013 BPL, the vast majority haven't and payments are now months overdue. This is a repeat of the issues we saw in 2012," the chairman of FICA Paul Marsh said to ESPNCricinfo.

He added that FICA had already predicted the problem would arise and warned the players ahead of the competition.

FICA's condemnation of BPL comes as Bangladesh is trying to stage a successful World Twenty20 tournament although they hoped things would not come to that.

As that did not happen, the association went forward and made the suggestion saying that the event doesn’t ‘respect players' basic contractual rights’.

ESPN Cricinfo also said that Tillakaratne Dilshan, the Sri Lankan opener, is the latest addition to the player pursuing clearance of his payment as he has been remunerated only 21 percent of his fee for representing Dhaka Gladiators i.

However, the owners of the franchise have insist they owe him nothing.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has attempted to solve the matter to no results so far.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had also guaranteed action against such non-payment issues in the competition, but is reluctant now to take any responsibilities for the mishandling of the sensitive problem.

Tim May, the former chairman of FICA, had warned players against participating in the BPL as early as 2012 due to similar issues.

The news comes just days after it emerged that several Chittagong Kings players - England's Ravi Bopara, Netherlands' Ryan ten Doeschate, West Indies' Kevon Cooper, Zimbabwe's Brendan Taylor and Surrey's Jason Roy - had also complained to the BCB that they have not been paid.