West Indies cricketers haven’t received their match fees since January this year because of a severe cash crunch in their governing body, ESPNCricinfo reported.

“…monthly salary (and allowances) are up-to-date. The problem we are having is the retained players in the regional first-class competition have not been paid their match fees for the eight rounds that have been played so far,” Wayne Lewis, the secretary of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA), was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

The report stated that international men players have not been paid their match fee for the home series against Ireland in January (three ODIs and three T20Is) and the Sri Lanka tour in February-March (three ODIs and two T20Is).

It further claimed that the international women are owed the match fees for the four games they played in the T20 World Cup in February-March.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) chief executive officer Johnny Grave, however, has ensured that dues would be cleared in the near future.

“Cricket West Indies is facing a tough time financially…there is still money that is outstanding and we are trying to settle these player payments as a priority,” Grave said.

He also went on to reveal that CWI faced a shortage of cash due to the huge losses suffered while hosting Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2018.

“When we hosted Sri Lanka and Bangladesh we made a USD 22 million loss,” Grave said. “The media rights contract paid us less than a million dollars for those two tours.”

The domestic players have not been paid a “large percentage of their match fees for the 2020 West Indies Championship, the regional four-day competition.” the report read.

In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, CWI discontinued the competition last month after eight of the 10 rounds and declared Barbados the winners.

Notably, all regional players get USD 1600 per match which is separate from all the allowances.