GT20 Canada: Players protest over payment issue delays Montreal Tigers vs Toronto Nationals

In what was a "where did that come from" situation on Wednesday, the second edition of Global T20 Canada tournament faced a unique moment of crisis when a player protest delayed a second round match between Montreal Tigers and Toronto Nationals by two hours.

Media reports expressed that players and other staff members from both the sides refused to board the bus at the scheduled departure to voice their discontent. Toronto Nationals, the team led by former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, were scheduled to face the Montreal Tigers led by George Bailey at 10 pm IST. However, the players’ protest created an unprecedented turn of events.

This led to the delayed toss between Montreal Tigers and Toronto Nationals. A tweet by GT20 Canada official account read “The match has been delayed due to technical reasons”.

The match between @MontrealTigers and @TorontoNational has been delayed due to technical reasons. The game will now start at 2:30PM local time.It will be a 20-over-a-side match. #GT2019

— GT20 Canada (@GT20Canada) August 7, 2019

A report by ESPN Cricinfo suggested that both the teams were unhappy owing to their unpaid fees. With things getting out of hands and confusion prevailing all over, the Global T20 board issued a statement to provide a clarification. The statement made it clear that non-payment of fees was the reason behind the players' protests.

The organisers gave the statement, “The game between Montreal Tigers and Toronto Nationals on Wednesday, August 7th, 2019, was delayed due to procedural issues between the players, the GT20 league, and the franchise owners. All the stakeholders had a meeting and addressed the concerns.”

Match played after delay

After the delay, the game finally got under way. In a good encounter, Toronto Nationals got the better of Montreal Tigers by 35 runs and hence moved to the third position in the points table from fifth.

Batting first, the Nationals registered a total of 189 for 5. Opener Rodrigo Thomas played a wonderful knock of 70 runs. The explosive Proteas batsman Heinrich Klaasen then provided his team with a good finish by playing an unbeaten knock of 64 off just 34 balls.

In reply, Montreal Tigers were bowled out for 154. Except for Matthew Cross (39) and Dinesh Chandimal (36), no other batsman failed to deliver a fighting knock. Mitchell McClenaghan and Chris Green did wonders with the ball for Toronto Nationals by picking up three crucial wickets each.

Follow Sportskeeda for all the latest live cricket score.