Sri Lanka Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne and several other senior cricketers including Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews have reportedly refused to sign the central contracts offered by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) as they feel the amount offered to them is too less when compared to other countries.
The dispute, which occured at a time when the islanders are touring Bangladesh, could affect Sri Lanka’s bilateral home series against India, starting in July.
A statement from the attorney representing almost all top players including the Test skipper Karunaratne, Mathews, Chandimal and others said remuneration proposed to players are one third compared to some other cricket playing nations as per Federation of International Cricket Association report.
Earlier in this week, the SLC had said that 24 of the leading nation’s cricketers had been offered the contracts under four categories.
Significantly, these cricketers were given a deadline until June 3 to sign on the contracts.
In the A Grade, six players have been inducted with their annual pay ranging between $70,000 to $100,000, which is even lesser than India’s group C (lowest category) centrally contracted players, who earn around $137,000.
Issuing a statement, the Sri Lankan players said they were “shocked and dismayed” by their board’s decision to go public with specific payment details of players.
“These disclosures amount to a grave security concern to each and every player,” the statement said.