Players resolve pay dispute with board

No match, no fees © Eddie Norfolk

Kenya's players met with board officials at Cricket Kenya's headquarters on Thursday after expressing unhappiness at not receiving their match fees for the abandoned tri-series match against Canada at Mombasa last month.

The game was called off after Canada informed match officials that they were unable to field a side because of illness in their squad. Under ICC regulations, that means the game was deemed never to have started and, as such, Cricket Kenya did not pay its players appearance fees of between $60 and $90 each. The players, however, believed that this money should have been forthcoming even though the game was scrapped the day before and they never even left their hotel. They still received their $30 daily allowance on the day concerned.

"We were concerned about our allowances for the Canada match," Thomas Odoyo, the Kenya allrounder, told Kenya's The Standard, "but that matter has now been resolved. With that issue now behind us, we can now focus all our attention on training."

Cricinfo has learned that the board agreed to pay the fees as a one-off, on the understanding that this did not set a precedent.

The news comes days after Cricket Kenya announced its players would each receive $5000 bonuses for their success in the World Cricket League last week.

"We will pay them this appearance fee soon and they have agreed to resume training," Tom Tikolo, Cricket Kenya's chief executive said. "They are now settled and we don't anticipate any more issues. They [the players] also expressed concern regarding the issue of World Cup bonuses and we assured them they would get paid on time."