Sri Lanka full-strength but contracts unsigned

Sri Lanka Cricket will send its top team to the World T20, but player contracts remained unsigned on the eve of their departure to Bangladesh, with little indication the team will put pen to paper before they leave the country.* The players met late on Saturday to discuss their position, but it appears they remain unwilling to sign a contract that does not feature a percentage cut of the payment SLC receives for the team's participation in global tournaments.

The team is set to meet at SLC in Colombo at 4am on Sunday for the customary departure ceremony, before boarding their flight to Dhaka, which departs at 7:30.

SLC chief executive Ashley de Silva confirmed the top side would travel to Bangladesh, but said the board had not received conclusive word on the players' stance. "They haven't indicated that they're not going to sign it, but if they don't sign it before they leave, I suppose we will look at it again when they come back," he said.

The board had earlier threatened to send a second-string side to Bangladesh if the players did not sign, but have softened their outlook since. SLC stands to gain most if the team leaves for Bangladesh without signing the contract, as the board would then no longer be bound to pay the $500,000 flat fee, nor the two-tiered incentive payments it had offered as part of its revised offer, which was a partial sop to the players' demand for 20% of the gross sum received for tournament participation, by SLC.

As had happened in 2012, when contracts were not signed until mid-July, the players may not even receive match fees or their regular salaries as long as the contracts remain unsigned. These funds are likely to be retroactively paid when the contracts are agreed to, however.

The players had also softened their demands, asking for 12% of the tournament fee on Saturday. The ICC is expected to pay SLC approximately $8.9 million for the World T20, meaning the figure the players are holding out for this tournament is in the region of $1.07 million. The difference between the guaranteed flat fee the board offered and the percentage sought by the players amounts to about $570,000 for the tournament. Beyond those figures, the players' objection to this proposal is largely driven by the belief they are due a percentage of the ICC payment, primarily as compensation for the use of their images in promotional material for global tournaments.

Sri Lanka's players had received a cut of the ICC event fee from 2003 to 2012, until the board struck that payment from player contracts last year. The players' grievances are driven largely by the complaint that they are being made to pay for the board's misuse of finances. The board had run up debts of almost $70 million when they built two new stadia and renovated a third for the 2011 World Cup. Player payment has caused strife at the beginning of every 12-month contracts cycle since then.

The present standoff is also believed to have caused conflict within the board. President Jayantha Dharmadasa had been sympathetic to the players' concerns, but was outmuscled in the board room by an opposing faction. 

Sri Lanka contracts issue timeline

• 2003
• SLC agrees to share a percentage of ICC event fees with players
• 2010-11
• SLC runs up debts of almost $70 million as it constructs stadiums for the 2011 World Cup
• Feb-Sept 2011
• Crippled by debt, SLC is unable to pay cricketers salaries for eight months
• March 2012
• Players refuse to sign fresh contracts due to a number of contentious clauses
• July 2012
• The issues are resolved, and the players sign
• March 2013
• SLC strike the players' share (25%) of the ICC events fees from the new contracts, which the players refuse to sign. After a 24-hour lockout, chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya mediates negotiations and gets the players to sign on the understanding that the players' share of the ICC event fees may be reintroduced in future years
• January 24, 2014
• Players give Jayasuriya a letter demanding 20% of the gross sum paid by the ICC to SLC for global events. Jayasuriya conveys this to the board, which is drawing up the new national contracts
• February 27
• The contracts list is announced and the contracts are sent to the players in Bangladesh. Upon noting that SLC has not reintroduced any clause that would give the players a cut of the ICC events payment, the players refuse to sign the contracts
• March 12
• The players meet with SLC to negotiate. The board promises to take the players' concerns back to the executive committee
• March 13
• The executive committee proposes an incentive-driven payment system for global events, as a partial sop to player demands
• March 14-15
• The players maintain their refusal to sign contracts, insisting on a percentage cut from the ICC payment