BCCI owes Muttiah Muralitharan $400,000, Mahela Jayawardene $500,000

New Delhi: Highest wicket-taker in the history of cricket, Muttiah Muralitharan is an asset for any team he gets associated with. His presence makes a tournament rich but it seems BCCI doesn’t feel obliged to have him in the IPL. Muralitharan, one of the greatest spinners of all time, shocked everyone when he revealed that the richest cricket board and the owner of the richest cricket league IPL, the BCCI still owes him $400,000. In fact, his former Sri Lanka teammate Mahela Jayawardene is waiting for his $500,000 for his services. It’s an old matter but the issue resurface after the BCCI recently published a list on its website in which it declared that the board paid Rs 2.2 crore to Mohammed Shami as a compensation for missing out the IPL 2015 because of injuries. In response, former Australian cricketer Brad Hodge tweeted a couple of days back, "I see Mohammed Shami got compensated for injury during IPL in 2015 from BCCI. Any chance they can compensate the Kochi Tuskers players.” Kochi Tuskers participated in the IPL in 2011 before they got terminated by the BCCI as their parent company -- Rendezvous Sports World -- failed to deposit the bank guarantee. Apart from Hodge, the prominent names who donned the Kochi colours were Muralitharan, Jayawardene, VVS Laxman and Ravindra Jadeja. Following their termination, the players were put into the auction for the subsequent season. In the year 2012, the BCCI suggested the foreign players to sue Kochi Tuskers as they were unable to pay the players. After a long and hard-fought battle, they had something to smile for when the court ordered the BCCI to pay Rs 550 crores to Kochi Tuskers for terminating the franchise . "The BCCI still owes me $400,000, and Mahela, who was the captain of the team, $500,000. I've written or spoken to the BCCI officials so many times in this regard, but despite many assurances on their part, nothing has happened. Overall, the BCCI owes the Kochi players more than $2 million. We're still waiting to get 40% of the money due to us. “The franchise paid us only 60% of our share, before asking us to take the remaining 40% from the BCCI, since they claimed that the board had kept their guarantee money with them," Muralitharan was quoted as saying by the Times of India. "I've played in so many leagues around the world, but no board has done something like this. Like the players, the board too is supposed to honour a contract. It shows that they don't care for the players. They're just bothered with running the tournament.” He also said that for him and Mahela, they can still keep healthy and fit without that money but for the lesser-known cricketers this money means a lot. In response to these comments, a BCCI official said that it’s for the franchise to pay their players, not the BCCI. He also said that the matter is disputed but he hopes the players will be paid once the matter is settled in court.