Sri Lankan cricket players refuse to sign reduced pay contracts
Sri Lanka’s national cricket players 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,” lawyer Nishan Premathiratne said in a statement.
The statement came as Sri Lanka Cricket extended the June 3 deadline until Sunday.
The statement said players will take part in the upcoming tour of England where they are due to play three one-day internationals and three Twenty20 matches without contracts.
“Even when players are refused pay, they will play for the country because that is their main objective.”
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 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.
Sri Lanka is ranked eighth out of the 10 Test nations, ninth in one-day internationals and eighth in the Twenty20 rankings.
Cash-strapped after a number of tours were cancelled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Sri Lanka has persuaded India to play extra games on a tour in July so that it can earn increased television revenue.
(AFP)
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Let then go and play abroad, if anybody else want to employ them. Perhaps they are so annoyed because of their recent 5 star performance in Bangladesh not being rewarded! Don’t increase a single Rupee or give into blackmail. But please make sure there is a generous top up payment for each run, half-century, century, catch, dismissal they participated in, runs stopped and wicket taken. Let the players those who hard work thrive.
Performance-based salary payments are always good and help to make the team more efficient. Attendance based payments are out-dated now. Private sector and INGO’s do performance appraisal and pay their employee salaries. This is nothing new and it is the latest system. Even the poor estate workers are compelled by the companies to do the same. Mostly, law-makers & govt sector employees /officials in SL are getting the salaries and benefits without any proper performance appraisals. They get everything automatically. It appears from the figures that the players are getting more than a million rupees per month and many other benefits. The problem in SL is that the above two categories expect to receive all benefits like developed countries. They should realise that this is a poor country, economy is weak and all other categories & people are suffering and undergoing lots of hardships. Many are un-employed. After all, good governance means transparency, accountability & efficiency ! Playing without signing the contract is also illegal ?
The Sports Ministry has a long term plan for reviving performance in cricket.
Under Kurakkan Satakaya Sports leadership, SL is highly unlikely to be listed for the World Cup 2023.
I fully understand the fuming players.
This is ridiculous! For Sri Lanka players money comes first. First, they have to deliver goods! They do not play to win. Majority of them unable to score more than 10 runs.
Fielding is par below average. Even they can’t catch falling ‘Kadju-puhulan’ with their butter fingers. They do not even have stamina to ball 10 overs! See the attitude. Playing cards while their colleagues struggling in the middle. For a instance, have look at limited over ratings from all the Cricket playing nations. Sri Lanka is in a pathetic situation enjoying the lowest position even below Afghanistan and Netherlands! It is better to ask these guys to remain home and select a fresh team. Remember the infamous South Africa tour during Apartheid era? Sri Lanka started with a new team and went on to win the world up. I predict here….SL gonna lose all the matches in England and will say players minds were not focused due to this pay-issue.