SLC has agreed to offer contracts to 21 players for five months from August[/caption]
The contract dispute between the national cricketers and the cricket board, that had been running on for almost first half of the year, ended on Monday (16) with the two parties settled for a solution following successful intervention by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) President Shammi Silva and one of its Vice Presidents Jayantha Dharmadasa.
As a result, SLC has agreed to offer contracts to 21 players for five months from August on a tour-by-tour basis. Reassessment of players and new player categorisation will be made again in December before the two parties enter an agreement for contracts for the next year.
“The undue intervention of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC, under Aravinda de Silva) by formulating a new player assessment scheme and payment structure created a messy situation. Both the President and the Vice President had to do a lot of talking with the senior players to sort out the issues amicably and come to this solution,” a senior SLC official told the Morning Sports on Monday.
The annual contract dispute dragged on to the extent of creating even a player revolt whilst relations between senior national cricketers and the officials of both TAC and SLC soured to an unprecedented level in the recent months.
The previous list included 24 players, proposed for annual contract. Out of them, Isuru Udana retired from international cricket, Kasun Rajitha has been dropped from the new list, while Angelo Mathews has still not informed of his availability.
Avishka Fernando, Chamika Karunaratne, and Asitha Fernando have allegedly been added to the new list owing to their improved performance in the recent series.