'Our careers are over' - Oman players denied T20 World Cup prize money

This time last year Kashyap Prajapati was living the dream, playing against the likes of Australia and England at the men's T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. The top-order batter didn't do much of note and Oman went winless, but the tournament was a rare foray into high-profile cricket for Oman. It was Prajapati's second T20 World Cup, having played in the 2021 edition - which Oman had co-hosted - and Oman's third time overall.

A year on, Prajapati is in the US, looking to secure a future for himself, having been forced out of Oman after an acrimonious - and still unresolved - pay dispute with Oman Cricket over prize money from that event.

Prajapati is not alone. Almost the entire Oman squad from that tournament is no longer part of the set-up, and quite a few are no longer in the country, a consequence of Oman Cricket's refusal to pay the players the US$ 225,000 prize money the ICC had set aside for teams finishing between 13th and 20th at the event.

The total prize money of US$ 11.25 million for that tournament was widely trumpeted by the ICC as a record-breaking amount at the time, with the winners India receiving US$ 2.45 million. Yet, according to the World Cricketers' Association (WCA), multiple participating boards from that tournament have yet to pay the full prize money to their players. Oman's is the most flagrant breach, with the deepest consequences, with none of the US$ 225,000 passed on to the 15-man squad.

"Our lives have been upended over this issue; we've lost our spot in the team, our contracts have been torn up, and we have been forced to leave the country," Prajapati told ESPNcricinfo. "It's just so confusing and we don't understand why the ICC isn't able to ensure we get paid the prize money we have earned, and why there isn't a safe space for us to raise concerns?"

Under the ICC's terms of participation for events, to which each member signs up, all prize money must be paid to the squad, via the member boards, within 21 days of the end of the event. The ICC has confirmed that the prize money was paid to Oman Cricket, but that money has not been paid on to the players.

Prajapati says Oman's players wouldn't have been aware of what they were due had it not been for the media attention around the record-breaking amounts on offer (he claims they never received prize money from the 2021 edition either, because they didn't know about it).

According to Prajapati and two other members of that squad, the players raised the issue of the prize money on several occasions after the T20 World Cup with team management and the board, to no avail. The first time was at a tri-series in Canada in September, already three months after the end of the T20 World Cup. Twelve of the 15-man World Cup squad, including Prajapati, were part of this squad, there to play against the hosts and Nepal.

It was here that Oman's players discussed the issue with players from the other two teams, who had also been at the T20 World Cup. Nepali and Canadian players told Prajapati and his team-mates they had received their shares but only after overcoming some resistance. WCA claims players from other Associate nations who played in that tournament have been paid between 20%-70% of the prize money they are due but not the full amount by their boards. Oman's players brought up the issue with team management but were told to concentrate on playing and that the issue was being looked at.

The issue was brought up again by the players, this time ahead of the T20 Emerging teams Asia Cup, which included 'A' sides from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh among eight teams. The tournament was played in Oman last October. This time, according to Prajapati, the team resolved to take unified action, including the threat of refusing to play, if they weren't given assurances about the prize money and when they would receive it. This is when matters escalated.

When they brought it up with a board official during practice before the tournament, he asked the squad members individually if they wanted to play. When they said not unless they received the prize money due to them, it was made clear that this could result in their expulsion from the side.

Discussions continued with senior board officials that day, but eventually a group of senior players were given an ultimatum: play, or the board has another 15 players on standby to play their first game, against the UAE. The players refused and were told to pack their bags and check out of the hotel where they were staying.

A glance at the scorecard of that game and the selected squad for the tournament confirms the last-minute, wholesale changes that took place: only five of the 15-man squad announced before the tournament was in the side for the first game; only four from the XI that played Oman's previous game two weeks earlier. And only two from the XI that played against the UAE were in the T20 World Cup squad, just four months prior.

A number of those players eventually had to leave Oman. As with most Gulf states, residency in the country is tied to employment visas and in this case, a number of players had their employment visas and other employment revoked, compelling them to leave the country.

"It's been a massive loss for my career and professionally," Fayyaz Butt, who across five years played 30 ODIs and 47 T20Is for Oman, told ESPNcricinfo. "I had to leave Oman. I'm not working at the moment, looking for opportunities but our playing careers are over."

Although there is no player association in Oman, their plight came to light because they reached out to WCA, and that too only after players from Canada and Nepal (during the tri-series in Canada) made them aware of the option. The lack of information made available to Associate Member players by their boards has been cited by WCA as a key factor in such issues. Boards hope players don't know they are due this money, or that they can intimidate players to prevent them from raising it, or pay them a portion of the prize money and claim that is all they are due.

The ICC has been involved and has been supportive but is hamstrung by not having a mechanism through which a board can be penalised for such non-payment. The WCA recommendation that outstanding or non-payment amounts should simply be deducted from ICC member revenue distributions is unlikely to be taken up by a members-run body.

One official said that Oman Cricket tried to explain the non-payment away to the ICC as a misunderstanding and that the issue isn't that the board don't have the intention to make the payment. ESPNcricinfo has reached out multiple times to Oman Cricket and a senior official within the board directly, but no response has been forthcoming.

The ICC and WCA reached an agreement on prize money for players in 2024, covering ten major ICC events in the cycle up to 2027. The WCA say, however, that since then, all three major ICC events have had outstanding or late payment issues for players. It does acknowledge that some "minor progress" has been made by the ICC in following up on members.

"In a sport that is trying to retain players in international cricket and ensure its future and relevance, it's disappointing to see more non-payment issues, including in pinnacle ICC events held almost a year ago," Tom Moffat, the WCA CEO, told ESPNcricinfo. "We understand ICC management have continued to chase the boards on this, but the issue reflects poorly on the whole sport and adds to the widespread issues in domestic leagues.

"There are simple solutions to this problem and whilst the majority of boards do the right thing, it's frustrating that some are still not. It's also extremely concerning if some players are unable to raise their legitimate issues without fear of being punished for doing so."