The players informed team management of their reluctance to attend training on Monday morning, after which the franchise informed the media that “the team decided to opt for a day of rest today.” Shortly after, news spread that Rajshahi’s local players forced the management to take this decision after going unpaid for the last two weeks. The foreign players and coaching staff, however, received 25 percent of their total fees after the team’s fourth match of the season, against Fortune Barishal on January 6.
“I speak on behalf of the BCB president,” Manjur said. “The president of the board called an emergency meeting on Zoom. I was physically present, the other directors were online. Negotiations are in process. Hopefully we can reach a solution tomorrow. The president spoke directly with the team owners, the captain and the players. We have a positive vibe from all parties. Tomorrow they will attend training, which is the most positive part of the negotiation.”
The BPL Governing Council has set the payment schedule for franchises to pay all players 50% of their total fees before the start of the tournament, 25% during the tournament and the remaining 25% after the tournament.
The BPL governing council had also ordered the teams to provide the BCB with a bank guarantee of BDT 8 million (approximately $657,000), but the franchises requested that this sum be reduced to BDT 3 million (approximately $246,000). . Still, Fortune Barishal is the only team that has paid the bank guarantee to the BCB.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that the checks of some of Rajshahi’s local players bounced on January 9. This led to the players threatening to withdraw from their January 10 match against Khulna Tigers. The team’s owner, Shafique Rahman, told the players that they would receive their payment on January 14, but that did not happen either.
ESPNcricinfo also found that Rajshahi has been irregular with his daily allowance payments. The players have had to bear their own expenses from January 5 to 11, the last time they were contacted by ESPNcricinfo.
Anamul had probed the payment issue as early as December 30. In the press conference after Rajshahi’s opening match of the tournament against Barishal, Anamul had said that the players were yet to receive their first payment.
“They haven’t paid us our salaries. None of us have,” he said. “The BPL has just started, so we don’t want to give a negative image of the tournament. Everyone is paying attention to the BPL.”
The players have been reluctant to speak officially on the issue of payments after that, but the atmosphere inside the Rajshahi camp is one of unease.
