“Start winning games for the country rather than complaining”: Aravinda de Silva slams SL cricketers

Sri Lankan players were not satisfied with their new contracts offered to them by their cricket board. They have termed the contracts as ‘non-transparent’ and ‘unfair’ due to which an inexperienced side had to play against Bangladesh in an away series.

The Kusal Perera-led side could only win a solitary game out of the three ODIs and earned their first World Cup Super League point after many hassles.

Kusal had also admitted that the ongoing contract issue was hampering his side’s progress since the veteran players had opted out of the tour.

Talking about the issue, the Sri Lanka Cricket Committee Chairman Aravinda de Silva said that the new contract had three-fold benefits and adhered to the player’s performance, unlike the old one.

“We discussed this matter in depth before we presented it to the players. Unlike in the past, we have increased the benefits three-fold than what it was but purely on the team’s performance… If they win a Test series, we pay them USD 150,000 which was earlier limited to USD 50,000. It has to be a collective effort by the whole team,” de Silva told Daily News, as reported by ESPNcricinfo.

The former Sri Lankan skipper further added that the team should try and win more games, which would encourage the technical committee to offer more benefits to the players and balloon their incentives.

“We also introduced a slab for the T20 format, which also runs up to a maximum of USD 50,000, which earlier didn’t have any rewards at all. The most important fact is that they should get into the middle and play positive cricket and start winning games for the country rather than complaining. This positive approach will encourage us to consider offering them more benefits, like some of the other countries in our region. If the team creates value, their incentives will also go up,” the 55-year-old added.

Earlier, 24 cricketers had refused to sign the new contracts citing excessive force by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in getting them committed to the agreements. Lawyer Nishan Sydney Premathiratne had released a statement on behalf of top players regarding the same.

“The players also believe that the provincial tournaments have been played on an ad hoc and on-and-off basis which is also a contributing factor. The players are not in agreement to sign unfair and non-transparent contracts and urge SLC to not hold the players at gunpoint,” the official statement stated.

Meanwhile, after losing the series 1-2 against Bangaldesh, Sri Lanka would be heading home to reflect and improve themselves for the upcoming series against England, which includes three T20Is and as many ODIs in the United Kingdom (UK).