Sri Lankan cricket has been suffering for the last few years and now yet again just before the limited-overs home series against India, the national team found itself in an embarrassing situation as several players refused to sign the contract for the upcoming home series.
Five Sri Lankan cricketers have refused to sign the contract offered by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) for the upcoming three-match ODI series and three T20Is against India, starting on July 13, and hence have been left out of the residential camps ahead of the home series.
The five cricketers are Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Ashen Bandara, and Kasun Rajitha – who were all offered the tour contracts by the SLC for the white-ball series against India, but they all refused to sign.
According to the SLC CEO Ashley de Silva, he had a chat with those five players regarding the issue, and all the players were supposed to sign the contract and enter the bio-bubble for the India series, but the talks didn't materialize as they were reluctant to sign the contract.
De Silva stated: “Until the national contract issue is resolved they were asked to sign the tour contract if they are going to be available for the Indian series so that they can go into a bubble as we are investing in them. But they were reluctant to sign the tour contract and therefore they were left out of the residential camps. They did not join the bubble in Dambulla or Colombo.”
However, the SLC official has reckoned that the doors are still open for all those five cricketers, as they can still sign the contract until the training begins for the India series.
He signed off by saying, “These five were offered a tour contract. That is when you participate, they will also be considered for national selection for the Indian tour. For the Indian tour, you need to have a tour contract, which they didn’t sign as they are part of the 24 players offered national contracts. If they sign the tour agreement before the commencement of training for the Indian tour the selectors will consider them.”
(With News18 Inputs)
