A FRESH contract standoff between the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) board and players has cast a shadow over the country’s scheduled tour of Zimbabwe for two Tests and a one-day international (ODI) tri-series also involving West Indies, which is set to begin next week.
BY SPORTS REPORTER
Sri Lanka players, led by captain, Angelo Mathews, his understudy, Dinesh Chandimal and veteran spinner, Rangana Herath, are said to have rejected new performance-based contracts, which present significant cuts of up to 24% on the athletes’ annual contract fees.
According to Sri Lankan publication Daily Mirror, the two parties were locked up in marathon discussions in the hope of avoiding a “full-blown” crisis yesterday.
The impasse comes a few days before Sri Lanka’s departure for Zimbabwe, their first tour to the country since their visit for five ODIs in November 2008.
Sri Lanka last toured Zimbabwe for a Test series 12 years ago, winning the two-match series played in Bulawayo and Harare by a whitewash.
In February this year, the Sri Lanka board decided to introduce a new contract system to motivate players to perform better and gain more incentives apart from their annual retainers.
The cuts to the annual retainers threaten to throw the sub-continent giants’ cricket into crisis.
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SLC’s decision to introduce pay cuts was motivated by a finding that the board had disbursed about $4,8 million – approximately 33% of board’s income — among the 16 players in the national squad during the previous contract year.
A player in the top category received a contract fee of $165 000; in category 2, $100 000; $70 000 in category 3; and $40 000 in category 4 during the 2015-2016 contract period, which ended in February in addition to match fees, 10% share from the International Cricket Council and ACC events and a percentage from team sponsorship.
But SLC’s new administrators decided to cut this substantially, where a player in the top category will now receive a reduced annual contract fee of $125 000 instead to the $165 000 received last year.
A player in category 2 will receive $80 000, while the contract fee for category 3 has been set at $60 000. A category 4 player will receive an annual fee of $40 000 and $20 000 per player in category 5.
Accordingly, the Test match fee has been brought down to $5 000 from $7 500. This amount will be increased to $10 000 if they win.
Also, every century scored or five or more wickets taken in a Test match will earn a player an additional $5 000. The ODI and T20 match fees remain the same at $3 000 and $2 000 respectively.
However, in order to create competitiveness and encourage individual performance, the board is offering $5 000 for every century scored in a limited-overs match and five-wicket haul taken.
In T20s, this has been increased by a further $2 500, meaning a century or a five-wicket haul will fetch them $7 500.
