ACADEMY Players contracted by Cricket Guyana Inc. (CGI) are still owed for the months of May and June 2021.

Their Academy contracts started in January 2021 and ended in June, however, until now, the salaries for the final two months of that contract are still outstanding.

According to an article published by News Room on Monday, Academy players voiced their displeasure of the lengthy gap in payment.

The Guyana Cricket Board’s (GCB’s) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Public Relations Officer (PRO) Claude Raphael indicated that financial constraints caused the delay and that all players will soon be paid outstanding salaries.

The Academy players normally train alongside the 15 contracted Guyana Jaguars players, usually four times per week.

“Yes, the Academy players have not been paid for two months,” the CEO was quoted in the article.

“That is because since we took office, we have not been paid the franchise funds from the West Indies board, and as a consequence, we were short of funds for other business, so we decided to discuss among ourselves and try to meet the payment for the Academy players … we will complete that payment, but it is a question of funds,” he explained.

Raphael further highlighted that usually, funds would go directly to CGI and not the GCB, and that is a major issue the new GCB has faced since being elected in March 2021.

“The West Indies board would usually pay those funds to Cricket Guyana Inc. because those guys were contracted with Cricket Guyana Inc. and not the GCB as such. The CGI is a separate entity from the GCB,” the CEO expressed in the article.

The GCB executive further revealed that since March this year there has been an ongoing issue accessing these funds from CWI.

“Since March we have not had any money from the West Indies board with respect to the franchise. We pay them from the funds we had, apart from the franchise funds, and I am trying to get the account to know how much we have for them (players) so we can clear them off and then will deal with the West Indies board in time and not to let the youngsters suffer.”

CGI was set up as a commercial arm of the GCB when the CWI started its Professional Cricket League (PCL) in 2014.

In January, CGI announced contracts for 14 Academy players. Those contracts are ranked A (G$100 000), B (G$75 000), and C (G$50 000).