Regional cricketers feel financial pinch as CWI defaults on payments

Even as Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Ricky Skerritt said two weeks ago that no consideration had been given to cut salaries of contracted regional players, it appears his financially beleaguered board cannot pay what they do owe to them.

CWI has not paid international and domestic players their match fees since January this year. The main reason for the delay in payments due at the end of February, has been as a result of a severe cash crunch CWI has been facing. This has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic that has brought cricket to a screeching halt.

The international men players have not been paid their match fee for the home series against Ireland in January (three ODIs and three T20Is) and the Sri Lanka tour in February-March (three ODIs and two T20Is). The international women are owed the match fees for the four matches they played in the T20 World Cup, played in February-March in Australia.

However, the biggest losers are the domestic players, most of whom have not been paid a large percentage of their match fees for the 2020 West Indies Championship, the regional four-day competition. In March, CWI discontinued the competition after eight of the 10 rounds, declaring Barbados the winners of the Headley-Weekes Trophy (named after Caribbean greats George Headley and Everton Weekes).

The regional players are contracted under two categories: one comprises a set of 90 players that are on monthly retainers with the six franchises. The six teams include Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Leeward Islands and Windward Islands. These contracted players are split across four categories: A, B, C and Development. Players in Category A get a monthly remuneration of US $2,666, those in Category B get $2,000, those in Category C earn $1500 and those in Development get $1,000.

The second contracted category is the play-for-pay, where players are paid on per-match basis. All regional players, across both categories, are paid $1600 per match which is separate from all the allowances including per diem.

According to Wayne Lewis, the secretary of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA), the contracted regional players have been paid their allowances and salaries, but match fees for all the eight rounds of the domestic four-day competition are still outstanding. Those in play-for-pay category, though, have been paid the match fee for the first three rounds only.

“The players who are contracted, their monthly salary (and allowances) are up-to-date,” Lewis told ESPNcricinfo. “The problem we are having is the retained players in the regional first-class competition have not been paid their match fees for the eight rounds that have been played so far.”

According to Lewis, the West Indies women have received the prize money from the T20 World Cup, but not their match fees, which has also not been paid to the men’s white-ball squads. Lewis said WIPA was in touch with CWI to “ensure the money is paid as quickly as possible” to the players. Lewis also said that CWI had pointed out well in advance to WIPA about the cash crunch.

CWI chief executive officer Johnny Grave had given the assurance that payments would be made in the near future. “Cricket West Indies is facing a tough time financially,” Grave said. “Whilst all of our contracted players have received their salaries and allowances, and some players have received prize money and match fees, there is still money that is outstanding and we are trying to settle these player payments as a priority.”

Confirming the delay in the payments, Grave explained the match fees accrued in January, for the Ireland series and the first three rounds of the four-day tournament, were meant to be paid by the end of the subsequent month (February). Similarly, payments for February (rounds three-six of the championship along with the Sri Lanka tour and the Women’s T20 World Cup) were due by end of March. And for the matches played in March (rounds seven and eight along with the Sri Lanka tour and the Women’s T20 World Cup) are only due by end of April.

“We are two months behind making match fee payments,” Grave said. “I personally emailed all the players since end of the February when they would have been due (match fees). We have apologised to all the players and we are eternally grateful to their continued patience and support. We’ve been very open and honest as to why we can’t pay them and all the players know it is a priority for us to pay them as soon as we can.”

Grave said the primary reason CWI was facing the cash crunch was the huge losses the board suffered while hosting Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2018. “When we hosted Sri Lanka and Bangladesh we made a US $22 million loss,” he said. “The media rights contract paid us less than a million dollars for those two tours.”

That CWI was still able to clear dues for players for 2019 was only possible because of the England and India series at home last year. “That (the loss) was counter-balanced by having England and India in 2019 which led to record revenues. We almost cleared the balance of 2018 and 2019.

“And now we are in unprecedented times with Covid-19 so people that are due to pay us money haven’t been able to. Unfortunately the knock-on effect means that we are struggling to meet our obligations to our players.”

Lewis said the delay was nothing new, but he had “no doubt” that CWI would settle the player payments by end of June. “We have always worked amicably with CWI and they have settled all outstanding payments for last year (2019). It is this year’s payments they are having problems with. We are working to have all those payments done by June.”

Grave was not sure when exactly CWI would be able to clear the dues, but he remained optimistic mainly because CWI was in the middle of negotiating a new broadcasting deal after the previous contract with Sony-Ten expired in late 2019. He also said that CWI was looking at ways to use the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua, a 16-acre site which Grave called an “asset”, to raise money.

Australia and England’s contracted players have already agreed on cuts to their retainer fees as their respective boards combat the loss of revenue due to the pandemic. (Cricinfo/WG)