Sri Lanka players revolt against Sri Lanka Cricket Board’s new contract rules; SLC gives time time until June 3 to sign new contracts
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Sri Lankan Cricket
Before the team departed for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) presented contracts to 24 players with reduced base salaries and more performance-based incentives. However, leading players have declined to sign new contracts because they believe they are “unfair and non-transparent.”
SLC has given the revolting players until June 3 to sign new contracts. Failure to meet the deadline would necessarily imply the SLC putting players on tour contracts, which would incorporate different contracts for each tour.
Players were assessed on five criteria as part of the new contract system: performance, fitness, leadership, professionalism, and future potential and adaptability. This system was developed by Tom Moody and Aravinda De Silva-led cricket committee.
“The performance during the last two years carries 50 points while 20 points are given for fitness. The other three attributes carry ten marks each. The allocation was done by the coach, the three selectors, and the physical performance manager. The information is restricted to those involved in the grading process. But players unhappy about how they were slotted believe they have a right to know every detail of how their points were tabulated,” stated a report in Sunday Times.
Players issue statement declining to sign contracts
The players issued a statement via Attorney-at-Law Nishan Sydney Premathiratne, declining to sign the contracts because they had not been given specifics of their evaluation.
“During negotiations in respect of these Annual Contracts with SLC, it has always been the position of the players that they, in principle, are agreeable to a proper, transparent performance-based model, where each player would be assessed and categorized on attributes of performance. However, none of the players have been provided with their individual assessment sheets setting out how points were awarded under the criteria of performance, fitness, leadership, and professionalism,” the statement read.
The players have stated that they would not accept any terms that were unfair and non-transparent.
“The players are NOT in agreement to sign unfair and non-transparent contracts and urge SLC to not hold the players at gunpoint or give the players such ultimatums,” the statement added.
The outraged players also said that the SLC rushed to get their signatures on the contracts just moments before they were to leave for the ODI series in Bangladesh.
“The Management Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket, in an unreasonable hurry, attempted to place hard copies of the Annual Contracts before the players to obtain their signature a few hours before the players were to depart to Bangladesh for the ODI series,” the statement concluded.
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Mohamed Azhar
(370 Articles Published)