Sri Lanka cricketers refuse to sign new contracts after SLC makes hefty pay cuts

Sri Lanka’s leading cricketers led by Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne along with a host of other senior players, including the likes of Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews have apparently taken a bold stance to not sign the new central contract which is currently slashed by up to 40 percent.

The announcement made by the players comes at a critical juncture as the team is scheduled to play six white-ball matches against India in the month of July. The series is important from the Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) perspective as the board is struggling financially with India offering a helping hand to them by agreeing to tour.

A statement from the attorney, representing the top players from Sri Lanka and several other players, stated the pay-cut is too much compared to other cricketing nations as per the Federation of International Cricket Association (FICA) report. The SLC, this week, offered central contracts to its 24 players and has given its players a deadline of June 3 to sign the document.

Sri Lankan players not satisfied by the steep pay cut

The Sri Lankan players said in a joint statement that they were “shocked and dismayed” by SLC’s decision to go public with specific payment details of players.

“These disclosures amount to a grave security concern to each and every player,” it stated.

The Chairman of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) of the SLC, Aravinda de Silva, told reporters that they had to take such a drastic step based on the team’s lackluster performances in the past few years.

“We wanted to have a key performance indicator for the players so that we could evaluate them,” De Silva said adding that the new pay scheme was an incentive-based contract.

The players are clearly not happy with how the pay-cut episode has panned out, as they feel even the board is equally responsible for not managing its players properly. The elite players in the team also added that structure and politics within the board are what actually brought the downfall of the team in the last two to three years.

Sri Lanka are set to play Bangladesh in a three-match ODI series which is set to begin on Sunday, May 23.