Jayasuriya denied central contract
Colombo: Veteran all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya has been denied central contract by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) while retiring spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan finds his name in the 20-player list issued for the current year by SLC.
Jayasuriya, a veteran of 110 Tests and 444 ODIs, has been witnessing a slump in his performance for quite some time and has an average of less than three runs in the last six Twenty20 matches he played for his country. If that was not enough, in his last six ODIs Jayasuriya’s highest score was 31.
“We had discussions over the last few weeks with senior players, Sri Lanka Cricket, selectors and team management to try and put a value on the national contracts. In that regard we decided we would try and reduce the number of national contracted players to 20 from 30. We felt that having that number of players would give us the cream to be signed up on contract for the national squad,” Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors Aravinda de Silva said.
“The contracts were worked out on the previous year’s performances and in Sanath’s (Jayasuriya) case, since he has not performed up to expectations, we decided to leave him out. We also allowed him to go to England and play some county cricket to see how he performs. As I’ve said before, we haven’t let either Chaminda Vaas or (Muttiah) Muralitharan out of our minds for the World Cup,” de Silva added.
However, the 41-year-old prolific left-hander had recently stated that he would like to play next year’s World Cup in the sub-continent before finally calling it quits. Murali retained
The selectors, meanwhile, retained Muralitharan in the contract even though the champion spinner had already announced that he would retire from Tests after the one against India starting on Sunday at Galle.
“Murali mentioned to us that we could leave him out of the contract and consider him only for the one-dayers if we require him, which I have basically from our side told him that we definitely require him for the World Cup,” de Silva said.— PTI
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Sanath Jayasuriya is a sportsman of international stature. He does not need a contract from Aravinda de Silva to play for his most beloved country. Sanath has life long rights to represent Sri Lanka in all forms of cricket until he opts not to do so.
By the way, where did Aravinda’s Ferrari come from?
This is a great move… We must give youngster a chance. No pinot in keeping some one for what he has done earlier. Need to respect the person but mean time have to take the necessary changes when required based on the current performance and future plans.
Sanath Jayasuriya is a great player who contributed his best for the country.. As a selecter, de Silva may have taken the right decision on behalf of the countries’ future..