Sri Lanka players refuse to sign annual central contract

Bengaluru, June 5: The Sri Lanka national team players have refused to sign the annual central contract, alleging lack of transparency from the country's govering board -- the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

The decision was not surprising as almost all the senior players in unison, had made it clear that the contracts offered by the SLC was not to their liking and also excluded some deserving performers.

The players in a collective statement said that they have decided not to sign the tour contract for the forthcoming tour of England and neither will they enter into any future contracts for tours.

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The SLC had announced that 24 of the leading players were offered contracts under four categories and they had been given a deadline until June 3 to sign on dotted lines.

The annual retainership ranged between $70,000 to 100,000 with star batsman, Dhananjaya de Silva set to be the highest paid.

On the ongoing contracts crisis; it does have some disparities because the module followed has to receive input from coach and selectors. That’s because there was not much cricket last year due to the pandemic. It’s pretty good document. Quite harsh on fitness and discipline.

— Rex Clementine (@RexClementine) June 5, 2021

At the height of the dispute and negotiations last month the players said remuneration proposed to players were more than three fold lower than payments made to players of other counties according to information received from the Federation of International Cricket Association.

Sri Lanka is expected to tour England from June 18 to July 4, where they will play three ODIs and an equal number of T20 Internationals. However the players have also clarified that at no point would they ever refuse to play for the country even when they have not signed the contract and SLC refuses to pay them their salaries.

The senior players were also not happy as public disclosure of their central contract amounts by SLC became a grave security concern to each and every player.

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Players claimed that the SLC decision had affected their self-confidence and peace of mind. The chairman of the Cricket Advisory Committee Aravinda de Silva defended the new performance-linked pay system.

He said that SLC was forced to take a harsh decision based on the past performances of the players as Sri Lanka's international ranking in all three formats had nose-dived."

(With PTI inputs)