SL Cricket : 38 players refuse to sign contracts - England tour in quandary ?

Sunday, 06 June 2021 - 9:08

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Sri Lanka's tour of England has been cast into serious trouble after the players expected to be selected refused to sign the tour contracts offered by Sri Lanka Cricket according to foreign media.

This is as part of the men's cricketers' larger resistance to SLC's new annual contracts scheme, which they believe lacks transparency and does not adequately compensate senior players.

Sri Lanka's national cricket players on Saturday refused to sign new pay contracts by a weekend deadline, but said they will take part in the tour of England later this month. A lawyer representing the cricketers said they did not agree with a new performance-based pay scheme designed by a cricket board panel that included former Australia star Tom Moody. "Players refuse to sign annual and tour contracts until the pay dispute is resolved,".

Although players have not been centrally contracted since last October when the previous round of contracts expired, since they have  played under a succession of temporary tour contracts.

The team is due to leave for England at 12.05am on Wednesday (June 9).

Thirty-eight players have signed a statement refusing to sign the tour contracts - an increase from the 24 players who had previously made their resistance to the new scheme official.

Primarily, the players' contention is that the workings of the grading system devised by SLC to assign contracts of varying value to players have not been sufficiently made clear to them.

"Because of the problems with the transparency of the ratings system devised by SLC, the players will not sign the [tour contract]," the release signed by 38 top players said.

Their lawyer, Nishan Premathiratne, has told ESPNcricinfo that in addition to refusing the tour contracts on principle, there was also a legal objection to these contracts.

"The tour contract also refers to matters of the annual [main] contract for 2021, which is yet unsigned," he said. "In the event, the annual contract is not settled and a dispute is pending, the validity of the tour contract referring to an unsigned contract is also an issue."

In addition to taking issue with transparency, the players have also stated they would prefer the only criteria for drawing up contracts lists should be player performance and fitness. SLC's new scheme, however, also takes into account leadership, professionalism and future performance/adaptability.

And while the annual contracts were offered to 24 players - a reduction from the 30 who were offered central contracts in the last round - players are also now suggesting that some compensation be given to a wider group of players. As 14 further players have joined the original 24 in resisting the new contracts scheme, this new request follows.

"In addition, the players have decided they will not sign the contracts until players who have performed well in past years are looked after fairly," the statement said.

The new contracts scheme had been drawn up primarily by the technical committee headed by Aravinda de Silva and SLC's new director of cricket Tom Moody. There will now need to be serious negotiations over the next few days if Sri Lanka are to fulfil their tour obligations.

Players who have refused to sign the tour contract: Kusal Perera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Dananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella, Suranga Lakmal, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Lasith Embuldeniya, Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dushmantha Chameera, Kasun Rajitha, Lakshan Sandakan, Vishwa Fernando, Isuru Udana, Oshada Fernando, Ramesh Mendis, Lahiru Kumara, Danushka Gunathilaka, Ashen Bandara, Akila Dananjaya, Chamika Karunaratne, Asitha Fernando, Binura Fernando, Shiran Fernando, Avishka Fernando, Ishan Jayaratne, Charith Asalanka, Dananjaya Lakshan, Nuwan Pradeep, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kamil Mishara, Praveen Jayawickrama, Roshen Silva and Minod Bhanuka.

Under the proposed pay structure, former captain Angelo Mathews and current Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne suffered the biggest cuts.

Mathews' annual fee fell from $130,000 a year to $80,000 while Karunaratne was offered $70,000, a drop of $30,000.

When the new pay plan was unveiled last month, players said it was "non-transparent" and urged Sri Lanka Cricket to not hold them at gunpoint.

Players also accused the board of violating confidentiality by publicly disclosing their proposed salaries.

There was no immediate reaction from the board, but it has said that players could earn more under the new performance-based scheme formulated with the help of former skipper Aravinda de Silva and Tom Moody.

The Australian was hired in March as the Sri Lankan board's director of cricket to prepare the team for the next World Cup.

The 24 national players were offered annual contracts with all-rounder Dhananjaya de Silva and wicket-keeper Niroshan Dikwella getting the highest remuneration of $100,000 each. However, both have also rejected the new pay deal, according to their lawyer.

Sri Lanka Cricket officials said the base fees in the new contracts were in addition to payments for each match as well as allowances for travel outside Colombo.

SLC president Shammi Silva said last month that he believed players had the potential to earn more and help Sri Lanka improve its rankings.