Muttiah Muralitharan Slams Senior Sri Lanka Cricketers Over Contract Dispute

Former Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has expressed his unhappiness over the national team’s involvement in the contract disputes. The likes of Kusal Perera and Angelo Mathews have indulged in a long-standing dispute over central contracts with the cricket board. It has prompted Muttiah Muralitharan to say that the board should instead go with the tour contracts.

Sri Lanka cricket board’s decision of implementing a new grading system to determine their annual paychecks lacked transparency. Hence, plenty of Sri Lankan players refused to sign a central contract with the board due to differences in pay. The recently-concluded England tour proceeded based on a tour contract. The players have signed tour contracts for the India series, beginning on the 18th of July.

“This year we think they don’t need a central contract, we can go with tour contracts,” Murali told Hiru TV. The 49-year old opined that the senior cricketers did not permit the junior ones to sign the contracts because of their pay cut. Muralitharan stated that now that the players refused central contracts when offered by the board, they would not get it now.

Plenty of senior players who are not part of the white-ball set-up are now without deals after Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) withdrew their offer of annual contracts. The Test cricketers are the ones affected the most due to this move as there are no tours until November.

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