BPL’s foreign players’ payment: A murky business?

Around 80 foreign players have featured in the ongoing 10th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), with their contracts ranging from 20,000 to 80,000 dollars, but the payment process of these players is cloudy with conflicting statements coming from parties involved.

While the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) claimed that the franchises complete the payment of foreign players themselves, the franchises presented a different version, saying the board plays an active role in the process.

Majority of the foreign players, who were either roped in from the players' draft or were directly signed by franchises, are paid in dollars while a few accept payment in taka and then convert it to their currency of choice.

At a time when there is a huge crisis of foreign reserves at the central bank, with the government taking restrictive measures to ensure that the least amount of foreign currency leaves the country, it is worth asking how the foreign players are paid, and more importantly, through which channel.

KM Rifatuzzaman, managing director of Akhtar Group and owner of Chattogram Challengers, claimed that all foreign players' payments are done via BCB.

"The responsibility for all player payments rests with the BCB. The franchises will deal with BCB in Bangladeshi currency," Rifatuzzaman told The Daily Star, adding that the same system is followed every year.

"You can't actually do it [paying in dollars directly]. It happened even when there was no dollar crisis. So ultimately we are paying the BCB in taka and BCB forwards it to their agents' account, not even the players' account," the Chattogram Challengers official added.

Asked if the BCB ever claimed it was having issues in paying the players' agents in dollars, he said: "No, it won't happen because the board has a lot [of dollars in its foreign currency account]."

BCB, however, provided a different version on this issue. The BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that a system of taking payments in local currency was in use in previous editions, but not anymore.

"In the eighth edition, the franchises used to hand us taka and we made the payments. But in the ninth and the 10th editions, we have assisted them regarding permission [from the Bangladesh Bank] and the franchises sent the money directly [to the players or their agents]," Nizamuddin asserted, also acknowledging that the dollar crisis impacts all the parties involved.

The permission is sought through the finance ministry following a nod at the inter-ministerial meeting, which then authorises the Bangladesh Bank to issue a permit to banks.

Nafisa Kamal, owner of Comilla Victorians, the most successful franchise in BPL history and one which employs quite a few high-profile foreign T20 players, tried to explain the payment mechanism of her team.

"The Pakistani players mostly accept payment in taka, but for the rest, it is in dollar which puts us in a difficult position because when we are paying in dollars, the expenditure becomes much higher," she said.

Nafisa, however, also implied that these transactions are tripartite, with the payments being made via BCB and taxes deducted from the payments too.

Comilla CEO Colonel AKM Zaki, though, claimed that payments to foreign players differs depending on how they are contracted.

"BCB deals with payment to the players that we get from the draft. The BCB monitors how much we pay either to it or to the players' accounts," Zaki claimed. "For direct signing, we pay in different ways to their [agents'] accounts."

BPL governing council member secretary Ismail Haider Mallick, however, provided a different version.

"Franchises complete the payment of the direct signings. They also do it for the draft signings, but if any franchise doesn't complete full payment to a player, the player contacts us," Mallick told The Daily Star.

While there is no argument over the fact that the BPL sees a lot of foreign currency being deposited into foreign players' or their agents' accounts, the contrasting statements from the different franchise owners and the BCB only further mystifies the apparent secrecy behind the payment mechanism.

For clarification, The Daily Star contacted the Bangladesh Bank. Md Mezbahul Haque, an executive director and spokesperson of the bank, declined to comment on this issue. However, an official of the Foreign Exchange Policy Department of the financial regulator who did not want to be named, claimed that the central bank has not been contracted either by the BCB or any bank for issuing any permit for transferring dollars to foreign players in BPL this time around.

If this official's claim is valid – there is enough reason to believe so given the conflicting statements provided by the stakeholders – it must be a matter of serious concern to national economic interest.

Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh, felt there should be a serious probe done on this matter by the financial watchdogs.

"The way the BCB and the BPL franchises are trying to pass the buck on each other raises the possibility of massive irregularities involved in payments to the foreign players," said the Bangladesh head of the global anti-corruption watchdog.  "While there is nothing wrong in hiring foreign players in BPL in the due process, it will be frustrating and unacceptable if the potentially multi-level ongoing violations of relevant laws are not strictly investigated," Iftekharuzzaman opined, further stating, "Dollar crisis or not, the matter should be probed particularly for potential collusive violations of the Anti-money Laundering Act and other criminalities facilitated by syndicates of black marketing and illicit financial transfers including hundi."