Sri Lanka Squash lays off coach citing no funds
Sri Lanka Squash (SLS) is dealing in troubled courts these days after the latest blow of being compelled to terminate their Pakistan coach citing no financial provision for his fee, mainly by the Ministry of Sports, SLS Vice President Eranda Geeganage told the Sunday Times.
Rehman Gul, hired this year in February, was intended for a year-long service. However, with the prevailing economic crisis, the ministry as well as SLS have all exhausted their finances and concluded the contract last Thursday (20).
“If he’s going to remain in Sri Lanka, we need to pay his fee, accommodation, dues and everything. We don’t have the financial ability to pay all those,” Geeganage said.
“We planned to have his service post-Commonwealth and Asian Games. Now that Asian Games is postponed, we wanted to have him till the Commonwealth. With that we got only a red light from the ministry for the funds. Hence, that is the bottomline”.
Gul, 49, at the time of his appointment, will, however, be sought to be reinstated once the financial situation improves, Geeganage added.
Roped in for a monthly fee of Rs. 750,000, there were no salary cuts in between, since the economic crisis struck. The payment for the balance period, until conclusion of contract, had been obtained from a leading apparel manufacturer, volunteering to
chip in.
Only last week the Sunday Times had reported due to dearth of funds, the team was denied of going for Asian Squash Championships, after the ministry ruled out funding.