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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) was holding an emergency meeting yesterday evening to come up with a suitable solution to make the Sri Lanka cricketers sign the controversial player terms agreement of the International Cricket Council (ICC) prior to next month's World Cup.

The deadline for the World Cup player contracts was January 14 and the Sri Lanka Cricketers' Association (SLCA) confirmed yesterday that the Sri Lankan players have refused to sign unless their demands are met.

The cricketers are demanding a 20 percent payment from the monies that will be paid to the BCCSL by the ICC for the World Cup. They have cited that players of Australia and New Zealand are being 25 percent of the monies paid to their relevant Cricket Boards, and the South Africans are getting as much as 30 percent. In view of this they are demanding 20 percent from the BCCSL.

"The BCCSL uptodate has made unsuccessful attempts by offering 5 percent of the monies they receive from the ICC to the players," said the SLCA in a media release yesterday.

The BCCSL came up with a new payment scheme early this week tied to performance to pay the players after turning down their demands. They said a US$ 100,000 bonus will be offered to the entire team if they won the World Cup in South Africa starting next month and the match fees for each player will be doubled from US$ 700 US$ 1400, while each player could also earn an additional 20,000 dollars if the team enters the final.

The SLCA also accused the BCCSL for signing the player terms agreement on advertising rights with the International Cricket Council (ICC) till the 2007 World Cup without consulting the players concerned.

"Therefore the players have the right to claim, these payments as this was done without their consent. The players are of the view that their rights have been stolen away by way of this player terms agreement," the release states.

The players, the SLCA states are clearly committed to participate in the World Cup even without such payments.

The SLCA have committed themselves to serve the interest of the players and their welfare and has sent a representative to Australia to enlighten the players of the current situation. The players are awaiting a favourable response from the BCCSL.

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