SLC sets July 8 as the deadline to resolve contracts controversy ahead of India series: Report

A controversy erupted when Sri Lanka's top cricketers, including Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews, refused to sign central contracts offered by the country's cricket board citing a lack of transparency in the manner in which categories of the contract have been allocated.

Sri Lankan players issued a joint statement and said that they were “shocked and dismayed” by the SLC’s decision to go public with the specific payment details of players. “These disclosures amount to a grave security concern to each and every player,” they said in the statement.

However, the latest reports have emerged that the Sri Lankan board has given 36 hours to the players for signing the national contract.

According to a report by PTI, SLC sources said the players are returning from the UK on Tuesday and they will be served with a July 8 deadline to sign the contracts. Anyone failing to do so would be excluded from selection for the home series against India starting July 13.

As per these categories, six players come in the highest Category A, where they receive an annual pay ranging between $70,000 and $100,000. In this category, Dhananjaya de Silva will receive the highest pay ($100,000), whereas, other players will receive $70,000-80,000 each.

According to a Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) report, a statement from the attorney representing nearly all the top Sri Lankan players said the remuneration proposed is one-third of what some other cricket-playing countries offer to their players.