Oman Cricket Mess Triggers Storm, Players Yet To Be Paid T20 World Cup Prize Money
Oman Cricket has come under major scrutiny for refusing to distribute the prize money from the 2024 T20 World Cup to its players.
Oman Cricket has come under major scrutiny for refusing to distribute the prize money from the 2024 T20 World Cup to its players. In fact, the board has completely fazed out the 15 players that took part in the tournament, which was held in the US and West Indies. Oman finished bottom of Group C, also consisting the likes of England and Australia, and the board received a $225,000 (approx. Rs 1,93,01,737) prize money from the International Cricket Council (ICC) for successfully making it to the group stage of the tournament.
As per ICC policy, a board must evenly distribute the prize money to its players within 21 days of the end of the event. While the ICC has confirmed that the prize money was paid to Oman, the players are yet to receive their shares, despite the tournament concluding almost a year back.
According to the World Cricketers' Association (WCA), multiple participating boards from that tournament have yet to pay the full prize money to their players. Oman Cricket remains the only board yet to pay a single penny to its players.
To make matters worst, the players have been completely sidelined by Oman Cricket for taking a stand for themselves.
India-born batter Kashyap Prajapati, who has played 37 ODIs and 47 T20Is for Oman, is currently stuck in the US, hoping to secure a future for himself.
"Our lives have been upended over this issue; we've lost our spot in the team, our contracts have been torn up, and we have been forced to leave the country," Prajapati told ESPNcricinfo.Â
"It's just so confusing and we don't understand why the ICC isn't able to ensure we get paid the prize money we have earned, and why there isn't a safe space for us to raise concerns?" he added.
Prajapati also revealed that the Oman players never received prize money from the 2021 edition either as they weren't aware of such a thing back then.
Pacer Fayyaz Butt has also left the country after his employment visa was revoked. Most of the countries in the Gulf provide visas on the basis of employment.
Fayyaz echoed Prajapati's sentiments, and now fears for his future.
"It's been a massive loss for my career and professionally," Fayyaz Butt, who across five years played 30 ODIs and 47 T20Is for Oman, told ESPNcricinfo. "I had to leave Oman. I'm not working at the moment, looking for opportunities but our playing careers are over."
Despite Oman Cricket's negligence on the matter, ICC is "hamstrung by not having a mechanism through which a board can be penalised for such non-payment."
Last year, the ICC and WCA had reached an agreement on the policy of prize money for players, covering ten major ICC events in the cycle up to 2027.
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