England tour to go ahead

Sri Lanka’s cricketers soften their stance

Fears of Sri Lanka’s cricket tour of UK being cancelled were allayed last night after the extended squad of players agreed to sign a tour declaration.

The national cricket team will fly to London Heathrow tonight for a three match ODI and three match T20 series. The ongoing contract dispute has dragged on for weeks now and remains unresolved after players demanded that the Cricket Committee reveals the mechanism that was followed in categorizing players into annual contacts.

Although players were demanding the mechanism, they were effectively being bitter about the pay cut the seniors were forced to go through. One particular senior player was going to lose out USD 50,000 compared with his previous year’s retainer. Plus the seniority payment that was existing in previous contract has been scrapped this year. However the Cricket Committee argued that the new contracts were based on the performances and for example if Sri Lanka win the upcoming series against England, they would receive a winning bonus of USD 75,000. The players were being compensated for winning and this was seen as a good move by many.

Usually, the players have had it their way when it comes to contract disputes, but this time, they were on thin ice given Sri Lanka’s fickle positioning in ICC Ratings across all three formats.

The extended squad of 24 players who would be going on the tour didn’t change their stance and were refusing to sign a tour contract, effectively telling the board that they are willing to play for free.

However SLC was adamant on players signing the Tour Declaration which makes them comply with the MoU SLC has signed with the England and Wales Cricket Board. This the players have agreed to provided they are shown the mechanism on which contracts were drafted. The players eventually gave in after SLC informed them that the ExCo has unanimously decided to ban them for three years. The ban included all forms of cricket; international, First Class and Leagues.

The tour declaration ensures that players wear clothing that promotes SLC’s sponsors, take part in media engagements and that their image rights are at the disposal of SLC for marketing purposes.

SLC officials President Shammi Silva, Vice President Jayantha Dharmadasa and CEO Ashley de Silva represented SLC during negotiations. Dharmadasa, a former President of SLC, has been involved in previous such negotiations with players as well and sources said his presence at yesterday’s meeting proved to be crucial.

SLC top brass met players individually. There are three players who joined the squad for the first time and SLC was surprised that even they didn’t budge. Charith Asalanka, a captain in waiting, may have burned bridges with the administration as he was particularly drafted into the squad in an effort to groom him as a young leader. Many in cricket circles believe that the former Richmond College captain, who will turn 24 this month, as a long term future captain across all three formats. His fate is now unclear after this episode.