Lankan test cricketers leave for India on tour contracts

Sri Lanka’s test players including Captain Dimuth Karunaratne will leave for India today for the two-test series with tour contracts instead of the central contracts.

Apart from Karunaratne, others who will travel to India are Angelo Mathews, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dhananjaya de Silva, Suranga Lakmal, Niroshan Dickwella, Vishwa Fernando, Lasith Embuldeniya and newcomer Ashian Daniel.

The present contracts expired on 31 December 2021, and the new contracts were to be presented to the cricketers by 1 January.

Players of the Sri Lanka T20I team who completed a tour of Australia and are currently in India for a three-match T20I series also went on tour contracts. Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva said that the 20 players contracted for the year would all be signing the central contracts on their return from India. Following the T20I series Sri Lanka are due to play two Tests against India which is part of the ICC Test Championships at Mohali (4-8 March) and at Bengaluru (12-16 March d/n). – (ST)