On November 2, the tenth day of ‘The Indian Heaven’s Premier League’ cricket event in Srinagar, more than 50 players, including big names like former India pacer Praveen Kumar, were in for a rude shock. Not paid by the organisers, the players wanted to leave, but the hotel staff didn’t allow them to check out, citing uncleared bills worth Rs 51 lakh. News had spread among the players that a couple of retired overseas stars who featured in the league — Chris Gayle and New Zealand’s Jesse Ryder – had already left the country that morning.
The IHPL was a private cricket league organised by a group called Yuva Society Mohali in Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium, and its organisers allegedly left the city without making payments to players, match officials, commentators and the hotel.
Praveen Kumar narrated the sequence of events to The Indian Express: “Everything was normal, until suddenly there was panic that the organisers of the league were not responding to calls, and there were doubts about the evening match. Then someone said Gayle and Ryder have flown back. Many players weren’t paid, so some decided to check out of the hotel.”
Another player, Ishwar Pandey, who has featured for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, said, “Some players were screaming at hotel staff. Between 11:30 am and 5:30 pm, no players or team officials were allowed to leave.”
On its website, the IHPL was described as “India’s new cricketing movement uniting sports, youth and tourism in the heart of Jammu and Kashmir”. As it’s a private league, it doesn’t come under the banner of the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association or the Indian cricket board. Players are approached and signed through agents, and the team is bought by the franchise, if there is one. Apart from Gayle and Ryder, the league featured other overseas players like South Africa’s Richard Levi and Sri Lanka’s Thisara Perera.
It is learnt that the unravelling began after a lack of crowd in the stadium. Sources said that the organisers had contracted international players for the first few matches, hoping it would draw audiences. “But as people didn’t turn up in large numbers, the organisers felt that the league was not financially viable. Since the players were not paid, they also refused to play,” a source said. “The organisers then suggested skipping the group matches and playing the semi-finals directly, but the players refused to participate until they were paid.”
The fallout has been swift. A former first-class player, Ashu Dani, who functioned in the capacity of a coordinator between the organisers and the players, was sacked from his job as chairman of the men’s junior selection committee in Delhi cricket by the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).
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“The DDCA has decided to remove Dani from the post of the chairman of the selection committee of the junior men’s teams, both Under-19 and Under-16,” Ashok Sharma, DDCA secretary, told The Indian Express. In an official letter, the DDCA Interim CEO and General Manager R R Singh warned players, coaches, support staff and match officials about being part of unauthorised leagues.
Dani did not respond to calls and messages. Ishwar Pandey explained how he and others were signed up. “Usually, what happens is that an Indian player gets a 10% signing amount, 50% of the money is paid when the tournament is on, and the rest later. But we received only 10%. Such tournaments run on players referring each other. So one player had approached me, and I said yes. When we came here, everything was going nicely, but suddenly things triggered when there was no payment being made,” he said.
Mushtaq Chaya, owner of Radisson Blu, where the events unfolded on October 2, said they are still owed Rs 51 lakh. “They (the organisers) had booked our hotel for the entire tournament, and the agreement was for 1,800 rooms over the period. Out of that, they had already availed 800-900 rooms,” Chaya said.
Chaya said they contacted the organisers on the phone and were told that the payments would be cleared, but that has not happened.
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Former Uttar Pradesh pacer Ankit Rajpoot said the situation came to light when an umpire from England, Mellisa Juniper, called the UK embassy to lodge her concerns. “We heard that she called the embassy. Then, the police came.” It was after the police intervention that the players and others were able to leave.
On the eve of the tournament, Nuzhat Gul, Secretary of the J&K Sports Council, an autonomous body working in “promotion of sports and building infrastructure”, had called the event a “milestone moment” in a TV interview.
When contacted on Tuesday, Gul told The Indian Express, “We want to support sports initiatives because our biggest objective is youth engagement. Unfortunately, this was a bad business model. The timing of the league was wrong, and the weather was cold, so after 6 pm, people did not want to watch cricket at the Bakshi Stadium. When the tickets did not sell, the sponsors pulled out. As a representative of the government, I was happy that a cricket league with a player like Chris Gayle was happening in Srinagar. In the future, we will do more checks and balances.” Gul confirmed that the J&K Sports Council had not entered into any sort of collaboration or received any funding from the promoters of the event.
A couple of weeks ago, in a promotional video, the Caribbean star Gayle would say, “Srinagar, what’s up? Chris Gayle, Universe Boss himself. I have some exciting news.” Ten days later, the news was about promises not being kept and the contract not being honoured.
