Oman Cricket has finally promised to clear the US$225,000 prize purse owed to its 2024 T20 World Cup squad, saying the year-long wait was nothing more sinister than “procedural” red tape.
The board confirmed on Monday that players and support staff would receive their share by July 2025. It comes after the squad – beaten only once in the Americas and Caribbean event last June – revealed they had still not seen a cent 12 months on.
Under ICC event contracts, boards are supposed to pass on prize money within 21 days of receiving it. The ICC says it did pay Oman on time. OC’s explanation? A need for “formal post-event clarifications from the ICC, which are typically received after global tournaments”.
The players’ patience wore thin last October at the Emerging Teams Asia Cup. With payments already four months late, the squad threatened a boycott. Eleven of the 15 men had their central deals suspended and, because residency in Oman depends on employment, most were forced to leave the country.
OC insists it never hid: chairman Pankaj Khimji says he “had repeatedly assured the players that payments would be made in full following the ICC’s confirmation of the allocation and structure.” He accepts the cricketers “had every right to seek clarity, and we were transparent about the timelines involved,” yet argues their refusal to play placed Oman’s international commitments “at serious risk”.
Several players turned to the World Cricketers’ Association after Canadian and Nepali colleagues put them in touch. Khimji is unimpressed, claiming the WCA “misled” the group and “encouraged them to abandon their duties under the guise of advocacy.”
WCA chief executive Tom Moffat counters: “We are pleased to see that Oman Cricket has put a timeline on paying the players the prize money almost a year after they received the money from the ICC, and almost a year after it should have been paid to the players under the ICC terms of participation.
“Every player in the world should be afforded a safe space to raise concerns and advocate for themselves. It’s incredibly sad that the majority of Oman’s men’s World Cup team have lost their careers, employment, and were in turn forced to leave the country for doing so. WCA will always assist players who come to it for help, especially those who are vulnerable or who face with extremely”
That abrupt end to Moffat’s quote rather sums up the entire affair: incomplete, frustrating and, for a number of talented cricketers, potentially career-ending. July’s payment deadline offers a glimmer of resolution, though whether it repairs trust between the players and their board is another matter altogether.
