Money matters add salt to Cup woes

Harare: Zimbabwe cricketers, home after their early exit from the World Cup, have been told that they will not get paid until June.

The match fees were $2,000 (Dh7,356) per game plus $500 for a half-century. It will also be June before the players start getting their salaries in foreign currency.

The players are paid in Zimbabwe dollars, and with the currency losing value daily, the salaries have been effectively reduced to nothing.

What makes it particularly hard for the players is that their contracts contain a clause, stating that they will be available for all matches organised by Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC).

This effectively means that they cannot play club cricket in England this season. If any of the players joins an English club, ZC will almost certainly withhold the money for breach of contract.

The ZC managing director, Ozias Bvute, knew that some players would join clubs in England after the World Cup and were likely not to return.

The inter-provincial four-day Logan Cup is due to start this month and a number of A team tours have been planned as the country prepares for a return to Test cricket in November.

"We have been told that we cannot join clubs in England," said a player who would only speak anonymously. "But, at the same time, we will only get our money from the World Cup in June.

"This means we will be stuck here until June and if we join clubs in England we will lose all our money as we would have breached our contracts."

Zimbabwe Cricket are believed to be in the red, already operating on an overdraft with a large amount of the World Cup money having been spent before it had even been received.