The national cricketers of Sri Lanka’s have refused to sign the new performance-based contracts by a weekend deadline, but meanwhile also said they will participate in the upcoming England tour, scheduled to begin later this month.
A lawyer representing these players has said they did not trust the new contracts, which has been designed by a cricket board panel which includes former Australia cricketer Tom Moody.
“Players refuse to sign annual and tour contracts until the pay dispute is resolved,” lawyer Nishan Premathiratne said in a statement.
The statement said that these players will take part in the upcoming tour of England, which will include three one-day internationals and as many T20Is, without signing the contracts.
Significantly, as paer the new contract, former captain Angelo Mathews and current Test skipper Dimuth Karunaratne will suffer the biggest pay cuts among all. While Mathews’ yearly salary fee fell from $130,000 to $80,000, Karunaratne was offered $70,000, which was earlier 100,000.
They players have termed the new pay structure “non-transparent”.
Later, they also accused the board of violating confidentiality by publicly disclosing their proposed annual salaries.