Friday Apr 26, 2024
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Thursday, 20 May 2021 01:46 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Sri Lanka Cricket Management Committee virtual media conference at SLC headquarters yesterday (from left): Chief Selector Pramodya Wickramasinghe, Cricket Advisory Committee Chairman Aravinda de Silva, SLC Management Committee Chairman Prof. Arjuna de Silva, Director of Cricket Tom Moody, SLC Management Committee member Uchitha Wickremasinghe and SLC Management Committee member Ashley de Silva
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Former Sri Lanka captain and present chairman of the Cricket Advisory Committee Aravinda de Silva said that they have put in place a new player contract to avoid the human element of judgement of a player, which was the case in the past.
“As past players we are happy to see the present players build a career out of sport, that’s why we have made it an incentive based contract,” said De Silva at a virtual media conference yesterday. “At the moment if you look at our performances we are right at the bottom of the rankings and that is one reason why we thought this would be the ideal opportunity to try and implement some of the things that needed to be implemented some time ago. In the past we have been faced with similar situations. If they don’t like us they would shoot down on a payment or a contract.”
Comparing the time he played cricket, where such incentives were not available to the players, De Silva said: “I think this (contract) shouldn’t be the reason for the player to be playing cricket, I am sure it is for the passion they have. The contract gives them some security for the future. At the same time there is a lot of responsibility on them to perform and represent our country. That part has to be achieved through the process, which is what our main interest is.
“We had to look at the facts in detail. Considering the fact that we didn’t have much cricket last year, we had to go back almost two years to get the performances. Considering those performances and looking at the future we had to take some harsh decisions. We wanted to have a KPI (Key Performance Indicators) for the players so that we could evaluate them at the end of every year. It’s the process. I am sure it is in the best interest of the players and the game. In the future we will keep improving on this but at least we’ve got a base now. Whereas in the past we have been arbitrarily awarding these contracts. We want to reduce the human element of judgement as much as possible because that is possibly the way to try and make it a more robust and precise sort of evaluation,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s Director of Cricket Tom Moody said that Sri Lanka has to undergo these changes if they want to move forward as a cricketing nation and compete with the rest of the world.
“There was a lot of work done in exploring, on how other cricket boards around the world go through this process and a lot of information was brought into what we come up with which is in Sri Lanka’s contract system for this year moving forward,” said Moody. “We are trying to do a very transparent and consistent process – the three selectors and head coach have got all the information and it’s a thorough and a fair system for all the players, not only the senior players but all who are going to represent Sri Lanka in the year. This was not made out of thin air but by thorough research, looking at other countries and their examples of how they contract their players. We’ve put together what we thought was the best, most effective and fair system for Sri Lanka.”
