The message from global cricket executives is getting louder—and harder to ignore.
In cricexec’s second industry poll on the game’s growing non-payment crisis, a resounding 93% said national cricket boards should face penalties when players go unpaid in leagues those boards sanction.
The poll, run among senior leaders across international cricket, builds on the wave of concern sparked by cricexec’s landmark guest post, Sanctioned but Still Unpaid: the Epidemic of Player Non-Payment in Global Cricket, authored by World Cricketers’ Association (WCA) CEO Tom Moffat.
As Moffat warned:
“Late and non-payment is a persistent issue in domestic leagues globally, and the issue is not getting better.”
And now, the executives agree: it’s time for consequences.
Accountability where it matters
The question at the heart of the poll was simple:
Should a national cricket board face penalties if players go unpaid in a league that board sanctions?
The answer, from nearly everyone surveyed: yes.
This goes to a critical argument raised by Moffat and the WCA—that sanctioning isn’t a free pass. If a league bears the ICC stamp, or that of a full member board, it signals to players and agents that contracts and payments are secure. When that turns out to be false, the damage cuts across careers, reputations, and the integrity of the game itself.
As Moffat put it:
“In any league that is officially sanctioned, players should have confidence that their contracts have some basic protections. These include standards around payment terms, and that there is a fit-for-purpose enforcement mechanism.”
From Bangladesh to Oman—a pattern of failure
The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) remains one of the most notorious offenders. Despite public commitments by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan to resolve payment delays, cricexec’s first poll found that 91% of executives believed the ICC should revoke the BPL’s sanctioned status over repeated financial breaches.
And then there’s the Oman saga.
In the aftermath of the 2024 T20 World Cup, Oman’s players waited—then fought, then watched their careers collapse—as $225,000 in prize money remained unpaid. Players who spoke up faced retaliation: contracts terminated, national selections revoked, and even the loss of jobs tied to visa status.
Former Oman pacer Fayyaz Butt summed it up bluntly:
“It’s been a massive loss for my career and professionally. I had to leave Oman. I’m not working at the moment—our playing careers are over.”
Why board penalties matter
The WCA has argued that board accountability is key to systemic change.
Moffat has called for reforms including:
- Withholding ICC distributions from boards that sanction leagues with unpaid players.
- Standardized dispute resolution clauses in all player contracts.
- Escrow account requirements to ensure player funds are secured before tournaments even begin.
For Andrew Breetzke, CEO of the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), the stakes couldn’t be higher:
“There are two issues that ultimately will undermine—even destroy—any domestic league: corruption, and non-payment of players. If those two elements are not sorted, then your league ultimately will fail.”
Breetzke also cautions against blind faith in ICC sanctioning as a guarantee:
“I don’t believe you can rely on ICC sanction because the way that sort of sanction filters down, it’s quite evident that that isn’t working.”
The ICC’s credibility crisis
While ICC rules require prize money to be distributed within 21 days of event completion, there is currently no meaningful enforcement mechanism to ensure that happens.
Even after a 2024 agreement between the ICC and WCA aimed to standardize prize money policies through 2027, the WCA reports that all three ICC events since have seen delayed or partial payments.
The ICC’s member-driven governance system has kept stronger proposals—like funding penalties for boards—stuck “under review.”
As cricket’s revenues surge, from the IPL’s $6.2 billion media rights deal to ICC global partnerships worth billions, the inability to guarantee basic player payments is drawing international embarrassment.
Learning from other sports—and each other
The WCA has collaborated with regulatory experts like James Kitching, former head of FIFA governance, to map reforms drawn from more advanced sports.
Moffat emphasizes:
“We can learn from other sports where they are clearly more advanced and sophisticated than cricket is.”
The call isn’t just for policy tweaks—it’s for a modern, enforceable framework that treats professional cricketers as essential stakeholders, not disposable labor.
Will 93% be the tipping point?
The cricexec poll results leave little ambiguity: the global cricket industry wants change.
First, 91% said it’s unacceptable that nearly a third of players report having experienced late or non-payment at an ICC or national board-sanctioned event.
Now, 93% say boards must face penalties when their sanctioned leagues fail to pay.
The question now is whether the ICC, national boards, and league owners will step up—before cricket’s unpaid players become the defining scandal of the sport’s boom era.
As Moffat put it, the core issue is one of values:
“Professional cricket is a short-term and precarious career path for most players. These issues reflect poorly on how cricket, which continues to position itself as the second-biggest sport in the world, treats one of its most important stakeholders.”
For the sake of those stakeholders—and the game itself—the industry appears to feel that the time for accountability is now.
