Zim cricketers finally paid

Sport
THE NATIONAL cricket team middle order batsman Sean Williams says he finally received his dues from Bangladesh club Brothers’ Union yesterday after having been left stranded in a Dhaka hotel

THE NATIONAL cricket team middle order batsman Sean Williams says he finally received his dues from Bangladesh club Brothers’ Union yesterday after having been left stranded in a Dhaka hotel after his club failed to pay the accommodation costs on time. SPORTS REPORTER

Williams and fellow Zimbabwean Sean Ervine had their passports confiscated by the hotel, Tropical Daisy, because of the unpaid bills, making it impossible for them to leave.

They had also been awaiting their outstanding match fees.

Yesterday, Williams confirmed he had finally received his outstanding due.

He posted on Twitter: “Finally been paid after eight days of torture sitting in the room waiting.

“Finally the time has come to hopefully be on a plane soon. Bangladesh has got to be the worst country I have ever toured and I wish to never set foot on this soil ever again in my life,” Williams tweeted.

Ervine and Williams arrived in Dhaka on October 29 and had to stay seven days longer than planned because of the payment issue.

Williams yesterday told Cricinfo he was owed $1 500 in match fees, $100 for his visa costs, $320 as reimbursement for a flight from Bulawayo to Johannesburg, which he said the club agreed to pay and 18 000 taka ($230) in daily allowance.

Ervine on the other had earlier said he was paid for only three of the five matches that he played.

He received an allowance for 14 days when he had been in the country for almost a month and was given an economy ticket to fly to London instead of a business class ticket. Neither Ervine nor Williams is new to playing cricket in Bangladesh.

Both are on their fifth tour of the country, having travelled there with the Zimbabwean national team twice and played in the BPL twice.