Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) announced the annual national player contracts for 2021 at a virtual media conference held today (19th May).
Read More : Sri Lanka Cricket Annual Player Contracts issue explained
After weeks of speculation, Dhananjaya De Silva and Niroshan Dickwella were officially named the highest-paid players with an annual retainer of 100,000 USD. The number of annually contracted national players have been brought down from 32 to 24 from this year.
Two more types of contracts – Domestic Development Contracts and Incremental Contracts to support the rest of the players who are not in the main list have been introduced.
The Domestic Development Contracts will consist of up to 6 players, who are under the age of 25. A player can fall into this category for a maximum period of 3 years (annually renewable contract) based on performances.
In the Incremental Contracts category, a player, who has played multiple matches for the contract year but not awarded a national contract can be included upon accumulating 10 points. The points will be awarded for all 3 formats – three points for a Test match and one point each for ODI match and T20I match.
The system to grade players was also discussed in detail by the Cricket Technical Committee headed by Aravinda De Silva and the Director of Cricket, Tom Moody.
The overall scoring system have been based on five aspects.
- Performance – Score out of 50
- Fitness – Score out of 20
- Leadership – Score out of 10
- Professionalism – Score out of 10
- Future Potential and Adaptability – Score out of 10
The 24 contracted players have been categorized as per their total score into four grades namely – A,B,C,D with 3 tiers in each category. Therefore, it means that Dhananjaya De Silva and Niroshan Dickwella have received the best total score out of all five aspects listed above.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic which only saw 11 international matches being played in 2020, performances of 2019 were also considered to grade players to give a score out of 50 for the points allotted for the main aspect – Performances.
For the Fitness category, if a player achieved a Skin Folds of less than 75 and completed the 2Km time trial in less than 8 minutes and 35 seconds, all 20 points can be secured.
The 10 points allocated for leadership can be gained by the seniority and other leadership attributes. To calculate the seniority score – 1 point for a Test match, half a point for an ODI and half a point for T20Is has to be added up. If a score of 100+ can be achieved, 5 points will be awarded. For instance, Angelo Mathews would’ve gotten all the 5 points in this category since he has played over 90 Tests, 200+ limited-over games.
To achieve the remaining 5 points allocated for leadership, the current and previous leadership roles will be evaluated along with selflessness, communication and personal care.
To achieve all the 10 points in the Professionalism category, two main areas such as adherence to player’s code of conduct and other professional behavioral ethics and values were considered.
The final category of future potential and adoptability were based on 3 areas – long term potential and sustainability in all 3 formats, high level of skill along with elite professionalism and ability to adapt to the game in both home and away conditions.
Sri Lanka Cricket have given a deadline of 3rd June 2021 for the players to sign the contracts. If any player does not sign the annual contracts, they will be given only a tour contract.
| Player Name | Contract Grade | Retainer Amount (US$) |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | A1 | 100,000 |
| Niroshan Dickwella | A1 | 100,000 |
| Kusal Perera | A2 | 80,000 |
| Angelo Mathews | A2 | 80,000 |
| Kusal Mendis | A3 | 70,000 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | A3 | 70,000 |
| Suranga Lakmal | B1 | 65,000 |
| Dasun Shanaka | B1 | 65,000 |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | B2 | 60,000 |
| Lasith Embuldeniya | B2 | 60,000 |
| Pathum Nissanka | B3 | 55,000 |
| Lahiru Thirimanne | B3 | 55,000 |
| Dushmantha Chameera | C1 | 50,000 |
| Kasun Rajitha | C1 | 50,000 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | C2 | 45,000 |
| Lakshan Sandakan | C2 | 45,000 |
| Vishwa Fernando | C3 | 40,000 |
| Isuru Udana | C3 | 40,000 |
| Oshada Fernando | D1 | 35,000 |
| Ramesh Mendis | D1 | 35,000 |
| Lahiru Kumara | D2 | 30,000 |
| Danushka Gunathilaka | D2 | 30,000 |
| Ashen Bandara | D3 | 25,000 |
| Akila Dananjaya | D3 | 25,000 |
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