Lankan cricketers answer accusations
2008-11-07 12:25:39

By S.R.Pathiravithana
The Sri Lanka Cricketers Association and the Lankan cricketers who have signed up with the Indian Premier League cricket cleared the air on accusations of them duping the Sri Lankan government and the general public on their contracts with the IPL.

A Sunday news item (Not a Wijeya publication) had accused the cricketers of misguiding the Minister of Sports saying that they have cleared contracts to take part in the IPL for three years when SLC had only given permission for them to participate in the inaugural tournament in 2008.

The forum that included the Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena, vice captain Kumar Sangakkara, the rest of the Lankan contingent who had signed the IPL contracts and the SLCA Officials pointed out that they needed a no objection certificate from the SLC only for the year that they are under contract with the SLC – 2008. However seeing that SLC had no FTP obligations during the IPL seasons of 2009 and 2010 they had gone ahead and signed for the rest of the contracted three years as they were not under contract for years 2009 and 2010. The SLCA also gave an insight as to the Rs.40 million deal that they worked out with the BCCI and what made the Indian cam temporarily pull out of it.

For more information on this read the Sunday Times of 9.11.2008. .