Member of Pakistan Blind Cricket team yet to receive his prize money, exposes the board

The Blind Cricket World Cup, governed by the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC) is being played since 1996. Each team has a total number of 11 players: at least four players who are totally blind and three partially blind players and up to four partially sighted players. Indian team has won the tournament twice, in 2014 and 2018. Talking specifically of the Blind T20 World Cup, only two editions have been played so far, and both have been won by India, in 2012 and 2017 respectively.

As good as it can get, India had arch-rivals Pakistan as their opponent in both the T20 World Cup finals. One of the players from the Pakistan team that ended as the runners-up last year, Idrees Saleem, has alleged in a video that he is yet to receive the prize money by the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) which was announced by the Peshawar Zalmi owner Javed Afridi for the team’s good performance in the tournament. Afridi had announced $20,000 prize money for the team.

Last year’s promised money cleared this year 

Saleem went on to allege that PBCC Chairman Sultan Shah has refused to clear the prize money because of substandard performance by the team in the final.

“Next year [2018], the team was again a runner-up in the World Cup and the PBCC held a conference in which all 19 players and officials, except me, were handed the money,” Saleem said in the video, in which he also explained that last year’s prize money was cleared this year, but he was not given his share.

“When I contacted PBCC Chairman Sultan Shah, he asked me to approach the media in order to receive my share of the money,” he continued.

In response to the video, PBCC Chairman Sultan Shah said that the player was declined the prize money due to his poor attitude towards discipline. Whether the promised prize money is cleared or not is yet to be seen.