Five players who refused to sign tour contracts left out of residential camps

Vishwa Fernando

Lasith Embuldeniya

Lahiru Kumara

Ashen Bandara

• National contract deadlock spills into Indian tour preparations 

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The impasse between Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and the 24 players over the signing of fresh national contracts has spilled onto the two residential camps currently being conducted in Dambulla and Colombo, where five players have taken a stand on the national contracts refusing to sign a tour contract ahead of the upcoming six-match white ball series against India.

“Until the national contract issue is resolved they were asked to sign the tour contract if they are going to be available for the Indian series, so that they can go into a bubble as we are investing in them. But they were reluctant to sign the tour contract and therefore they were left out of the residential camps. They did not join the bubble in Dambulla or Colombo,” said SLC CEO Ashley de Silva.

Sri Lanka cricketers Vishwa Fernando, Lasith Embuldeniya, Lahiru Kumara, Ashen Bandara and Kasun Rajitha, all of whom are not members of the present side touring England but are part of the 24 players being offered new national contracts, were those who did not sign the tour contract and were left out of the ongoing one-month residential camps that commenced on 25 June.

“These five were offered a tour contract. That is when you participate they will also be considered for national selection for the Indian tour. For the Indian tour you need to have a tour contract, which they didn’t sign as they are part of the 24 players offered national contracts. If they sign the tour agreement before the commencement of training for the Indian tour the selectors will consider them,” said De Silva.

The majority of the 24 players are currently in England in a bio-bubble playing in a white ball series and are due to return a week before the series against India commences on 13 July.   

SLC are currently having two residential camps for the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team and the Development Squad, where around 46 players are undergoing training under the watchful eyes of coaches from the High-Performance Centre – Shane McDermott (Dambulla) and Rumesh Ratnayake (Colombo).

“We are having a residential camp for the ‘A’ team and the Development Squad and there are also some senior players for whom we have created a bubble in Colombo. We have contracted about 61 players, 26 are training in Dambulla and 20 are training in Colombo. All of them have gone in for residential training,” said De Silva. “There are a few Emerging players who have not gone in, they will train separately.

“It’s a normal contract which we give to the ‘A’ team and Development Squad players. The national contract is a different one afforded to the 24 players. The ‘A’ team and Emerging team players also have to sign a similar contract but it is not a dollar contract, it’s a local Sri Lankan Rupee contract. They would be paid a yearly fee and they will get a quarterly payment.”

“These are players who have not been offered national contracts. All the players who have been selected for the ‘A’ team and Emerging team have signed it including former national players. If they get selected they have been given the consent to represent the country whichever format and level. If they participate at national level they would be entitled to the same benefits that the national level players get,” he said.

Currently Sri Lanka don’t have a coach for the ‘A’ team and De Silva said that the Technical and Advisory Committee headed by Aravinda de Silva is in the process of evaluating someone. “There are no applications as it is an internal appointment. The committee will go through the evaluation and nominate a person.”

The Pakistan ‘A’ team was due to make a tour of Sri Lanka coinciding with the Indian tour but due to the problem of creating two separate bio-bubbles SLC has put off the tour for October-November.

“We had a tour by Pakistan ‘A’ coming to Sri Lanka during the Indian tour in July, but we have now put it off for the months of October-November because we felt that both tours cannot be handled at the same time. Creating bubbles is going to be more stressful and we also don’t have the resources to do that,” said De Silva.

Sri Lanka ‘A’ were due to play Pakistan ‘A’ in a series of 2 four-day matches, 3 One-Day games and 2 Twenty20 contests.

“That is what we were looking at but I don’t know whether it will change after the dates were shifted to October. We are in discussions with the Pakistan Cricket Board and the tour is about 75-80% confirmed,” De Silva said.