Sri Lanka board to amend players' contracts

Jayantha Dharmadasa, the chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket, has said that the board will take steps to modify the players' contracts to prevent them from finding excuses not to honour their commitments with the national team.

Dharmadasa's statement was with reference to the issue surrounding Marvan Atapattu, who got away with any reprimand after he decided to pull out of the three-Test series against Bangladesh citing personal reasons. "We had to be lenient with Marvan because of the reasons he had stated in his letter explaining why he had pulled out," said Dharmadasa.

According to Dharmadasa, Atapattu had said that ten days was insufficient for him to prepare himself mentally for a Test series after the trauma he had to undergo by being overlooked for the World Cup matches and the matches in Abu Dhabi. SLC decided against taking any disciplinary action on Atapattu but they will impose a three percent penalty from his total earnings. Atapattu is at present playing league cricket with Lashings in England.

Dharmadasa also questioned Sanath Jayasuriya's decision to play county cricket for Lancashire when he was being 'rested' for the Bangladesh series. Jayasuriya is expected to replace Muttiah Muralitharan, who will return home to play against Bangladesh. Dharmadasa said that due to these incidents SLC will seriously review players' contracts in future and amend certain clauses that would include disciplinary action and heavy fines if players refuse to represent their country due to reasons other than injury.

Dharmadasa also accused Ashantha de Mel, the chairman of selectors, of helping the players play outside the national team's interest by resting them from international series. Relations between de Mel and SLC have been somewhat strained in the recent past. The SLC excluded de Mel from the list of ten candidates they sent to the sports minister to form the next selection committee.