21 December,2011 11:07 AM IST | | IANS
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has paid 45 percent of delayed salaries of Sri Lankan cricketers, a senior official said here Tuesday.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) confirmed that the ICC paid USD 2 million, a part of the due 25 percent of the country's participation fee for the last world cup, Xinhua reported.
U. R. Senaviratna, the secretary of the Sports Ministry said that the ICC paid part of cricketers salary directly to their accounts without going through the SLC.
"The payment of USD 2 million made by the ICC was due to be paid to SLC for hosting some matches of the last world cup," Senaviratna told Xinhua.
SLC has assisted the ICC payment by providing bank account details of each player and the relevant amounts owed to them. Instead of allowing the island's crisis-ridden cricket administration to pay the cricketers, the ICC chose to pay the cricketers directly.
The cricketers and staff were left without wages for nine months as a result of an unprecedented financial crisis following co-hosting the World Cup earlier this year.
SLC ran into financial crisis after running up debts of USD 32.5 million to finance the building of two international stadia and to renovate a stadium in Colombo, for the mega event.
The three stadia had been handed over to the military as SLC was unable to maintain them.
