Pakistani Cricketers Left Stranded in Uganda after Payment Dispute

Nearly 20 Pakistani Cricketers including top players like Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Hameed, and Imran Farhat have been left stranded in Uganda over a payment dispute with a T20 tournament organiser.

The players went to Kampala in Uganda to play a T20 league after taking due permission from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), but they found out that the tournament has been abandoned over the payment issues as soon as they landed at Kampala.

The Pakistani cricketers demanded 50% of their contractual amount as committed by the Uganda Cricket Association after the first two days of the tournament got washed out. However, the organisers refused to pay the sum stating that the sponsors of the league have withdrawn.

“It was then that we were told payments could not be made since the main sponsor of the league had backed out and there was no money,” one of the players was heard saying to PTI from Uganda.

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While returning, the Pakistani cricketers upon reaching the airport were informed that all the seats are blocked since the organizers have backed out from paying the fares, so they had to head back to the hotel.

“We wanted to leave immediately for home but on reaching the airport we were told that since the organizers had defaulted on other payments the travel agency, which had issued tickets, had blocked all seats and we had to return to the hotel,” the player further added.

The players are hoping that they can take the flight later today and can reach home safely tomorrow after contacting the PCB and Pakistan Embassy.

“Hopefully, we should be home by Saturday but it has been a bad experience for us. Instead of earning money, we had to spend out of our own pockets,” the player further stated.

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PCB released a statement saying that they are investigating the matter.

“We had inquired about the bonafides of the league from the ICC. Only after we were advised by the ICC that the Afro T20 League has been approved by them and is being played under the umbrella of the Uganda Cricket Association, we issued NOCs to the players,” the statement said.

The PCB said the International Cricket Council had even sent them a list of players which were provided by the organisers.

“We are looking into the incident which has taken place during the Afro T20 League, and once the complete information is received, further course of action will be advised,” it notified.

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