BCCI still to pay Champions League prize money: New South Wales

Melbourne, Jan 7 (IANS) The Indian cricket board is yet to pay the prize money to the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League winners New South Wales (NSW), Cricket NSW chief executive David Gilbert has said.

It has been more than two months since NSW Blues were crowned champions of the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League, but they are yet to receive the prize money of $2.7 million, a report in Daily Telegraph said Thursday.

The report said that the Board of Control for Cricket in India is more than six weeks late in delivering the cash.

Cricket NSW was Wednesday instructed to submit an invoice so that the money could be paid.

“I can’t remember having to invoice for prize money,” Gilbert said.

“We were advised during the tournament that payment to the winner would take 20 business days after the conclusion of the competition, which indicated it would be late November.

“But now we are in January and we haven’t seen anything. It’s certainly not panic stations, but we’d like to see the money soon.”

Gilbert said Cricket Australia, which is one of the founding members of the Champions League, was aware of the delay. He said the players were understanding and confident they would be paid. Cricket NSW will pocket half the prize money with the other half to be divided among the players.

“The players have been tolerant and we’ve made it clear we can’t pay them until the money is received,” Gilbert said.

The introduction of the Champions League has been a big reason Australian states have pumped big money into the KFC Big Bash.

However, with NSW out of pocket, state officials are sure to be wanting answers from the BCCI if the matter is not resolved.

“The matter has had absolutely zero impact on this season’s competition. There are no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ – we will get paid.”

Huge crowds have packed stadiums around the country the past couple of weeks to watch Chris Gayle (Western Australia), Dwayne Bravo (Victoria) and Shahid Afridi (South Australia) mix it with local talent.

The winner and runner-up of the Big Bash automatically qualify for the October Champions League in India.