New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Indian Premier League can never be too far away from controversy.
The latest being legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan's allegation that the Indian board still owes Mahela Jayawardene and him $500,000 and $400,000.
The issue of pending payments was re-ignited by Brad Hodge after Mohammed Shami was paid 2.2 crores for missing IPL 2016 due to injuries.
"I see Mohammed Shami got compensated for injury during IPL in 2015 from BCCI. Any chance they can compensate the Kochi Tuskers players,” the Aussie tweeted.
Kochi Tuskers were part of the cash-rich league in 2011, post which the franchise was terminated by the BCCI due to failure to submit bank guarantee.
Murali, Mahela, VVS Laxman and Ravindra Jadeja were some of the high-profile players in that team.
"The BCCI still owes me $400,000, and Mahela, who was the captain of the team, $500,000. I've written or spoken to the BCCI officials so many times in this regard, but despite many assurances on their part, nothing has happened. Overall, the BCCI owes the Kochi players more than $2 million. We're still waiting to get 40% of the money due to us.
“The franchise paid us only 60% of our share, before asking us to take the remaining 40% from the BCCI, since they claimed that the board had kept their guarantee money with them," Muralitharan told Times of India.
"I've played in so many leagues around the world, but no board has done something like this. Like the players, the board too is supposed to honour a contract. It shows that they don't care for the players. They're just bothered with running the tournament.”
BCCI however refuted Murali's charges, stating it's for the franchise and not the the board to pay these players. The Indian board further added that the matter was in court and players would be paid once the issue was legally resolved.
