Club cricket visa scandal ‘hell’ ignored for years

Concerns were overlooked years ago about the “hell” conditions some Sri Lankan cricketers were living in while playing for Victorian suburban sides.

SK Sports player agent Sammy Kandage.

Concerns about the “hell” conditions some Sri Lankan cricketers lived in while playing for Victorian suburban sides were known years ago.

A former West Coburg cricketer, who has since returned to Sri Lanka, told the Herald Sunhe raised concerns about the living conditions of players with club officials in 2014, after learning many were crammed into one house.

Mani Surendrak, a finance professional, said it was also well known foreign players relied on illegal cash-in-hand jobs because the meagre allowances paid to them by cricket clubs was not enough to get by.

“I went to their accommodation (and) it was a hell of a place … there were about 20 guys living there … I asked how they could stack up in one room and they said because some of the guys worked night shift (so beds were rotated),” Mr Surendrak said.

“I asked how they could work night shift when they weren’t allowed to because of their visas, and they said it was cash in hand.”

Sammy Kandage plays for Northcote United.

Numerous sources — from other player agents to cricketers and club officials — confirmedplayers from overseas routinely work for cash.

Players, coaches or umpires on temporary activity 408 sports visas are banned from performing paid work outside their specified sport activity.

Mr Surendrak said a Sri Lankan cricketer told him the player agent he was contracted to, Sammy Kandage, regularly collected his, and his housemates’, rent.

A high-level source with links to Cricket Australia, who the Herald Sun has chosen not to name, said he first became aware of the poor conditions some cricketers were living in about five years ago, when one of Mr Kandage’s players confided many people were crammed into his house, despite the fact he had paid about $7000 to come to Australia.

Some years later, he offered a lift to another Sri Lankan player, who started crying in the car.

“He said Sammy (Kandage) had got him into trouble … he was in a lot of debt back home and didn’t have a club to play at,” he said. “He said Sammy promised him a lot of things but did not deliver.”

The young player’s debts back in Sri Lanka were as a result of “paying a lot of money to come to Australia to play cricket”, the source said.

Asked why he didn’t raise his concerns with cricket authorities at the time, he said the players implored him not to as they didn’t want to leave Australia and also feared the agent.

Mr Surendrak said West Coburg Cricket Club official John Appleyard had expressed concern about Sri Lankan players’ living conditions in 2014.

Mr Appleyard said this week it was possible he had spoken with Mr Surendrak about the issue but it was so long ago his memory was fuzzy and he was certainly not aware of reports so many people were living together.

“I can’t remember that conversation but that’s not to say it didn’t happen,” he said.

“If I knew there were 16 living in a house, I would have been all over it,” he said, adding the club took pride in its care of international players.

Victorian Turf Cricket Association president Steve McNamara has previously said its own probe — started in March this year but suspended for months due to COVID-19 — found some players had forked out big sums to agents for help obtaining sports visas, while others said they had seen little of the payments they were supposed to receive from their respective clubs.

“A couple of recalcitrant people seem to be profiteering,” Mr McNamara said.

Federal and Victoria police are now investigating the whistleblower claims.

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