With the Sri Lankan players returning from their disastrous England tour on Tuesday, July 6, the ghost of the Sri Lankan Cricket player’s contract returns as well. The conflict between the board and the players have been going on ever since the SLC made public the new contracts and the player’s fee associated with it in May 2021.
The SLC has decided to make July 8 the last date for the signing of the central contracts before the India series begins on July 13. Ho0wever, players wouldn’t really be willing to sign it having already defied a June 3 deadline to sign the contracts citing a lack of transparency in the process of drafting the contract.
The main challenge that the players presented was that the remuneration that the board was paying to the Sri Lankan professionals was at least thrice less than what the popular cricket boards pay their players. The cited Federation of International Cricket Association (FICA) to justify their case.
Now, with three top cricketers already banned for a year and the players not really playing that well, their case doesn’t remain really strong and it would be interesting to see if they sign the contract or the SLC would field a second-string side.
The first of the three ODIs begin on July 13 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.