Five players left out of camp after refusing to sign SLC contract ahead of India series

Sri Lanka have left out five players from their camps ahead of the limited-overs series against India, scheduled to begin from July 13. Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Ashen Bandara, and Kasun Rajitha were offered tour contracts but have refused to sign them and as a result, will not join the Sri Lankan team in the bio-secure bubble.

“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,” said SLC CEO Ashley de Silva.

However, the doors are not completely shut. They can reconsider and sign the contracts before the training begins.  “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,” De Silva added.

The ongoing contract dispute between the players and the board does not seem to be coming to a conclusion at the moment. Some senior players like Angelo Mathews, Dimuth Karunaratne and also Dinesh Chandimal had earlier refused to put pen on paper ahead of the ODI series against Bangladesh, which would have seen them taking pay cuts. 

The Sri Lankan team is currently in England, where they are playing a limited-overs series against the hosts, which will conclude on Sunday (July 4). The Kusal Perera-led side suffered a 3-0 whitewash in the T20I series and are currently 2-0 down in the ODI series as well.