Sports Desk:

Durbar Rajshahi’s issues regarding players’ payment has been a constant in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Their players had constantly been asked in the press conferences whether they got any payment from the franchise in Dhaka and Sylhet phase.

Every time they answered ‘No, we didn’t get any (payment) yet, but we’re hopeful everything will be solved.’

Come the Chattogram phase, their hopes have somewhat faded. The team were scheduled to practice at the M A Aziz Stadium from 10 am on Wednesday. But suddenly at 9:48 am, there was a message in the official WhatsApp group that the practice was cancelled.

“The team has opted for a rest day,” the message read.

Since then, the question kept lingering: “Why?”

The answer was finally found. The players skipped training over unpaid wages on Wednesday.

It was learnt that Rajshahi’s team management issued checks for 25% of the wages to the local cricketers. However, the checks bounced, leaving the players infuriated.

Not only unpaid wages, the players’ daily allowance (DA) for the last 10 days wasn’t even paid.

Rajshahi’s next match is on Friday against Sylhet Strikers. Players have threatened to boycott that match if the payment isn’t paid by Wednesday.

“We, local players, haven’t got any payment yet. The foreign players got 25% (payment), but we didn’t get any,” a Durbar Rajshahi player told Daily Sun on request of anonymity.

Durbar Rajshahi manager Mehrab Hossain Opi was contacted, but didn’t respond until writing this report.

An official statement from the team management is expected by Wednesday.