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By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) may stand to lose US$ 500,000 to the International Cricket Council (ICC), but the Sri Lanka cricketers will end up with a princely sum of US$ 765,000 (approx.) on the World Cup tournament which was concluded last Sunday.

On World Cup prize money alone the cricketers will get US$ 530,000 (see table below) and a further US$ 235,000 (approx.) on performance incentives and for loss of commercial rights.

This total is besides the yearly contractual payments they receive from the BCCSL which runs into several millions, and the day to day expenses they receive on tours.

The BCCSL is expected to receive between US$ 8-9 million as World Cup guarantee fees. It may even be less than that amount if the ICC deducts the US$ 500,000 which they have set aside as likelihood compensation claims being made on IDI (the commercial arm of the ICC) by the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC).

The performance incentives for the team will work out to something like US$ 235,000 (approx.) with the following terms agreed by the BCCSL during negotiations:

For a win in the Pool matches - US$ 15,000 (6 Pool B matches); Win in the Super Six - one percent (1%) of guarantee money (3 matches in Super Six); Win in the semi-finals - one percent (1%) of guarantee money (1 match).

Ironically, it was over player contracts issue that the BCCSL now stand to lose 500,000 US dollars when they failed to compromise with the national team over compensation for advertising rights before the ICC deadline on January 14, 2003. At the time of negotiations, the Sri Lanka team was going through a lean period having lost 10 out of 13 one-day internationals and there was a public outcry that they didn't deserve any further emoluments because of their poor performances.

However the team put behind that wretched record to go and qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup recording six wins out of 10 matches.

But the pertinent question that needs to be asked here is: who will be made responsible if the BCCSL loses US$ 500,000 to the ICC?

Is it the BCCSL or the players and their cricket association? Someone should be made accountable for that big loss which the BCCSL could have utilised to finance the one hundred or more of its member clubs through whom the national cricketers finally emerge. Whether the BCCSL should take the money off the players is a decision which they must decide on. After all it was over the player-contract issue that they are now facing a loss of revenue.

SRI LANKA PRIZE MONEY EARNINGS AT 2003 WORLD CUP

Opponents Result Prize Money MoM

FIRST ROUND

v New Zealand Won US$ 10,000 S.T. Jayasuriya
v Bangladesh Won US$ 10,000 W.P.U.J.C. Vaas
v Canada Won US$ 10,000 R.A.P. Nissanka
v Kenya Lost US$ 5,000 -
v West Indies Won US$ 10,000 W.P.U.J.C. Vaas
v South Africa Tie US$ 5,000 M.S. Atapattu

SUPER SIXES

v Australia Lost US$ 20,000 -
v India Lost US$ 20,000 -
v Zimbabwe Won US$ 40,000 M.S. Atapattu

SEMI-FINAL

v Australia Lost US$ 400,000 -

TOTAL US$ 530,000

Note: MoM award included a gold wrist watch.

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