Nishan Sydney Premathiratne, Attorney-at-Law and the official representative appointed by members of the Sri Lanka Cricket team, stated in a press release that his clients have refused to sign the tour contracts over the dispute on annual contracts.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had planned to sign a tour contract ahead of the England limited over series due to the dispute over annual contracts. However, the Sri Lankan Cricket team players have refused the idea and hold the potential to not sign any tour contracts in the future as well.
Apart from that, the players have collectively decided not to sign the contracts until fair treatment is given to the players who were not included in annual contracts, but have performed well in previous years.
The players reiterate the fact that they will be in agreement of contracts which are developed on a proper, transparent performance-based model, where each player would be assessed and categorized on attributes of performance.
However, they do not agree with the proposed contracts as they believe they are not fair and transparent, with the player categorization for contracts also being done based on unrealistic factors other than the performance and fitness of the players.
Sri Lankan players will continue to be readily available to play and be selected for Sri Lanka despite the ongoing contract issues. Playing for the country is their first and only ambition – therefore they are ready to represent Sri Lanka at any time, even with the possibility of SLC rejecting to make any payment to the players.
