India's Tour Of Sri Lanka In Trouble? Five Lankan Players Refuse To Sign Contract For Ind vs SL Series

The five players were asked to sign the contract for the series against India, but they refused and as a result, won't join the residential camps for limited overs series against India.

Photo: AFP

These days Sri Lankan cricket is facing one of the worst phases of its history. The ongoing tussle between the board and the players is not coming to an end. Five Sri Lankan players have refused to sign contracts for the limited overs series against India.

The information has been revealed by Ashley de Silva, CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket. Significantly, there was also a lot of tussle between the players and the board regarding the central contract and that problem has not been resolved yet.

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The five players who declined to sign the contract are Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Ashen Bandara and Kasun Rajita.  These players were asked to sign the contract for the series against India, but they refused and as a result, won't join the residential camps for limited overs series against India.

Giving information about this matter, Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva said, "Until the national contract issue is resolved they were asked to sign the tour contract if they are going to be available for the Indian series so that they can go into a bubble as we are investing in them. But they were reluctant to sign the tour contract and therefore they were left out of the residential camps. They did not join the bubble in Dambulla or Colombo.” 

De Silva concluded by saying that the players will be considered for selection if they sign the contract before training for India vs Sri Lanka series starts.

“These five were offered a tour contract. That is when you participate, they will also be considered for national selection for the Indian tour. For the Indian tour, you need to have a tour contract, which they didn’t sign as they are part of the 24 players offered national contracts. If they sign the tour agreement before the commencement of training for the Indian tour the selectors will consider them,” concluded De Silva.