Follow UsThe Oman Cricket Board failed to pay even a single penny of the total US$ 225,000 prize money that its 15-member squad earned from the International Cricket Council (ICC) for their effort to finish 13-20th at the Men's T20 World Cup 2024. This claim is made by the players who participated in the event, but are no longer part of the Oman national cricket team set-up.
In fact, they are no longer even present in Oman, as most of them were expats from other Asian countries who were living in the Sultanate on their work visas.
"Our lives have been upended over this issue; we've lost our spot in the team, our contracts have been torn up, and we have been forced to leave the country," Kashyap Prajapati, one of the leading Oman batters of that World Cup team, was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
He also asked why the ICC was not compelling the boards to distribute prize money to the players, as the rule says that after every global event, the prize money to the players should be distributed within 21 days.
"It's just so confusing, and we don't understand why the ICC isn't able to ensure we get paid the prize money we have earned, and why there isn't a safe space for us to raise concerns,” Prajapati asked.
The Oman players at first were not even aware that they could ask for the prize money, as they did not get it for participating in the 2021 T20 World Cup, which was jointly hosted by them.
"It's been a massive loss to my career and professionally. I had to leave Oman. I'm not working at the moment, looking for opportunities, but our playing careers are over,” another player of that team, Fayyaz Butt, who was part of that team, was quoted as saying.
The Oman players were, in fact, not even aware of the fact that they could get the money from the board and only got to know it from fellow associate players from Nepal and Canada, while in Canada for an ODI tri-series, right after the T20 World Cup 2024.