Last Updated on 3 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: Afghanistan cricket board in financial trouble | ICC funds not reaching Afghanistan due to international sanctions
The funds sent by the International Cricket Council (ICC) have not reached the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) since July 2021, ESPN Cricinfo reports. It has become very difficult to transfer money to the country in the wake of international sanctions due to the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
ACB and ICC are engaged in talks to find out an alternative way such as routing the required money via non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Afghanistan. However, they haven’t zeroed upon a solution yet.
The ICC have made it clear to the Afghan board that funds cannot be sent to the country in the absence of a regulatory mechanism.
Afghanistan cricket board only able to remunerate 30 per cent of salaries
So far, the ACB has completed all the outstanding payments of its players and the coaching staff. However, it will be able to remunerate only 30 per cent of the salaries of its staff in Afghanistan.
The ACB was initially supposed to receive $40 billion from the ICC’s commercial rights cycle from 2016-17. It roughly translates to annual funds worth $5.71 billion. However, the sum was based on the ICC’s projected revenue of $2.7 billion during the aforementioned time period. With that amount coming down, the ACB was likely to receive $4.8 million from the ICC this year. However, the board last received money to the tune of $2.5 billion from the ICC back in July 2021.
Meanwhile, the board has arranged UAE residency visas for about 24 of its players in order to ensure that they get to travel across the world for different tournaments and series.
The ICC has even paid vendors on ACB’s behalf whenever the latter has hosted series’ in the UAE. This money is then adjusted with the funds that the ICC is supposed to send to the Afghan board.
ICC funds are the major source of revenue for the ACB considering that international teams do not tour the country and the board’s official T20 league is not broadcast beyond the borders of the country.
