Call for tripartite agreement between player, club and SLR
Ted Muttiah - the CR&FC President
A tripartite agreement between the player, club and Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) should be reached in future to protect the interests of all stakeholders involved with the sport and prevent club vs country conflicts arising, says CR&FC president Hiran Muttiah.
“Quite often players are being taken for national duty for a 7s programme while the local season is in XVs. The training programmes for both are different. By the time a player comes back to continue in the XVs programme, he needs at least two to three weeks to recondition in preparation for it,” he said pointing out that clubs suffer when players come back injured after national duty.
Muttiah explained that CR&FC has never held any player back unlike certain other clubs but always encourage their players. This is one reason, according to Muttiah CR has regularly produced national players.
“We tell the player you have every right to represent the country. That is why you should be playing rugby. But what happens when they get injured and they can’t play for the club. Clubs are the ones paying the money. Therefore SLR should have a tripartite agreement between player, club and SLR when they are on duty and also contribute something in support of the pool that they want to retain for the 7s and for the XVs programme,” he said. The clash in formats also even makes players unhappy when they are left on the bench. But these are aspects the player fail to understand as players’ ultimate goal is to represent the country.
“I have played for Sri Lanka. We have coaches who are also professional be it overseas or locals who are very competent. And the coaches are held accountable for the team’s performance. So it is not in their interest to keep a good player out. But they are reluctant to risk a player who has been training for 7s who don’t have the muscle mass, bulk or strength and conditioning because they have been trained for much more speed, agility and so on,” said the former Royal, CR&FC and Sri Lanka three quarter.
The coronavirus effect has also affected players who have lost their bargaining power while clubs have been hit by lack of revenues.As many other sports clubs in Colombo, CR also is currently facing a tough time with low revenue. With the current situation players may have to forego the usual perks they enjoy.
“We have told our players we can pay x amount, a reduced amount from what we have agreed to pay. But we are the only Colombo club other than Services that has been paying our players something even during this Covid. We have offered them one-year contracts not knowing that there will be a season this year. That’s our commitment to the players,” he said
Despite claims and reports on a player exodus, the club president is hopeful that CR can move ahead as they have always been during hard times. Muttiah said that the club stands by its players and respects their decisions, whatever it is.
“Players have to do what they believe is best in their interest. When the season starts back up again, we will return to our normal salary structure. We know that all other clubs are in a worse situation than us. If those clubs are promising these young players sign on bonuses, I would leave it to those clubs,” he said.
Muttiah refuted that fact that it was never a case of players holding the club to ransom and defended them.
“I think that would be very unkind to say to players. Players know they have a playing window of maximum 7 to 8 years, may be a little bit more on occasion. They seek to optimise the returns during that window. There is no club loyalty anymore. They are just mercenaries where they will go to the highest paying person. We have to adapt to it,” he said.
This is one reason, according to Muttiah, why CR is much keen on recruiting young players straight out of school, which allows them to help the players adhere to the club’s culture. As any other club, CR eagerly looks forward for players with loyalty to the club and produce more quality players to represent the country.