Sri Lanka's elite cricketers refuse to sign new contracts after board makes hefty pay cuts

Sri Lanka's leading cricketers led by Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne along with host of senior players, including Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews have refused to sign the central contracts offered by the board which they believe is far less compared to other countries.

Sri Lanka's leading cricketers led by Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne along with a host of senior players, including Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews have refused to sign the central contracts that see their payments slashed by up to 40 percent, a lawyer representing them said. If the dispute is not sorted in due course of time, it could well affect Sri Lanka's bilateral series with India in July, where six white-ball matches are expected to fill the coffers with a cash-strapped cricket board of the island nation. A statement from the attorney representing almost all top players including the Test skipper Karunaratne, Mathews, Chandimal and others said remuneration proposed to players are one-third compared to some other cricket playing nations as per the Federation of International Cricket Association (FICA) report.