SLC to probe Jayawardene's comments to newspaper

Sri Lanka Cricket's Executive Committee will review the actions of captain Mahela Jayawardene and team manager Charith Senanayake, after Jayawardene said he had "lost all confidence in dealing with SLC" in a letter to the Daily Mirror newspaper. Jayawardene's letter had come after the newspaper carried a story about a request from Jayawardene to the SLC, which he had believed was confidential.

Jayawardene's request to the SLC was to have the player's allotment of the guarantee fee from the World Twenty20 shared with the team's support staff as well as Sri Lankan groundstaff and curators, whom he said had worked "closely and tirelessly with the team" during the tournament. This request was turned down by the board, which said it did not wish to "deviate from standard practice".

Details of this request and the SLC's response were obtained by the Daily Mirror, who ran a story on the matter, which also quoted SLC's treasurer Nuski Mohamed laying out the reasons as to why Jayawardene's request was denied. This public airing of an issue Jayawardene believed to be sensitive then prompted him to write a letter to the newspaper.

"As the Captain of the National Team, I am disturbed and deeply disappointed that a confidential document handed over to Sri Lanka Cricket has been published in the Daily Mirror on December 19 causing much concern, embarrassment to players and other staff members," said Jayawardene in the letter, published on December 21. He said that as a result of the story being leaked to the papers, he had "lost all confidence in dealing with SLC in the future".

SLC has since issued a release saying the "release of [Jayawardene's] views through the Manager, direct to the media is a breach of their respective contracts on the part of both the Captain and the Manager and this matter will be taken up for discussion when the Executive Committee next meets."

Jayawardene is due to step down as captain following the end of Sri Lanka's tour to Australia.