SLC to offer 60 domestic contracts

Sixty domestic cricketers are to be awarded annual contracts, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said yesterday.

This will be in addition to the contentious central contracts offered to 24 national cricketers on the recommendation of the Cricket Advisory Committee led by Aravinda de Silva.

Those contracts are yet to be signed over a dispute on the grading of players, with the Advisory Committee recommending signing just an additional six players on development contracts.

The domestic contracts are aimed at sustaining club cricketers who have suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and not as a direct result of the recent exodus of players, SLC Secretary Mohan de Silva told the Daily Mirror.

All-rounder Shehan Jayasuriya and spinner Amila Aponso migrated to the United States to play in the upcoming Minor League Cricket tournament, with reports suggesting that more were intending to leave the country, a situation exacerbated by domestic cricketers not previously being offered annual contracts. “Several clubs pay players on a per-match basis,” de Silva said. “The contracts will be tiered according to those who have represented Sri Lanka in international cricket in the past, those in the ‘A’ team and emerging players.”

The national cricket selection committee will decide which 60 players receive these contracts.