Top CR&FC official denies rumours of player exodus
A top CR&FC official has refuted reports that there has been an exodus of players because their salaries were cut after the rugby season was affected by the coronavirus epidemic last season.
“No one has said they are leaving. None of the boys have signed contracts. After the Covid we anyhow cancelled all the contracts. We are talking to all of them,” he said.
“We know that Havelocks and CH&FC have promised some of our boys big money,” he said
Reeza Raffaideen was supposed to go to the Kandy. “We don’t know. He hasn’t signed up with us yet. He is also talking to us,” the CR official said.
Asked whether skipper Omalka Gunaratne is considering leaving, he said: “Omalka still has a contract with us. For whole of next season he has to be with us. Maybe he wants to leave. He has to come and have a chat with us and discuss it. Otherwise it will go to the same situation like Jason (Dissanayake) who left for Kandy SC without getting the release and couldn’t play the entire season because he broke out contract.’
“Non-contracted players are free to go anywhere,” he said referring to Dinouk Amarasinghe who has returned to Havelocks. “Dinouk doesn’t have a contract with us. He has clearly said he is not signing with us.”
Janidu Dilshan has been approached by Air Force. “He hasn’t decided. He is also still talking to us,” the official added.
“Bottom line is everyone of the boys seem to live in a different world. Covid doesn’t affect them. They still want the lump sum they got before Covid and all that. We can’t. We are a professional club. We have done our budget and we can’t afford to. Salaries we have said we will pay X amount now till the season is announced. Once it is announced we start training, then we will pay X plus so much,” he said.
“All the boys are also shopping around. Quite a few boys have signed with us. Others are discussing negotiating. They have yet to decide. We will wait and see now. We are not even sure there will be a season. We are not really training also,” he said.
“This is nothing unusual. End of season boys whose contracts are ending they shop around. They go and see who will pay them the highest price. Complication here is because of Covid they can’t demand same thing they got earlier because clubs are struggling. We don’t have the money. All the guys who had what they called sports contracts with Access, John Keels, MAS, etc. all got cancelled because companies are hit. We feel sorry for them but that’s the reality of life,” he said.