Sri Lankan board reaches agreement with players

Sri Lanka's World Cup player contracts dispute has been solved after talks between the players and cricket board officials on Thursday afternoon.

"An amicable agreement has been reached," confirmed a relieved cricket board chief executive Anura Teenekoon after the 90-minute meeting.

On Wednesday night the cricket board chairman Hemaka Amarasuriya had threatened to send a second-string squad to the tournament if the players refused to sign their contracts.

The players had refused to sign unless they receive 20% of the cricket board's guaranteed $ 6.4 million income from the tournament.

The players, represented by the Sri Lanka Cricketers Association (SLCA), complained that their image rights had been sold to World Cup sponsors without their permission and that should be properly compensated.

The board argued that they could not afford to share 20% of their revenue, claiming that the development of the game at the grassroots level would be jeopardised if they did.

An acceptable compromise was eventually reached whereby the players received 12% of the guaranteed revenue as well as an extra 3% in performance related incentives.

The incentives include:

* For a win in the Pool matches - US$ 15,000
* Win in the Super Six - one percent (1%) of guarantee money
* Win in the semi-finals - one percent (1%) of guarantee money
* Win in final - one percent (1%) of guarantee money

In addition, the players, who last year had donated USD 100,000 of their own wages to the SLCA, requested that 2% of the guaranteed fee from the ICC be distributed amongst Sri Lanka's lowly paid domestic cricketers.

The request was readily accepted by the Sri Lankan board chairman: "We would like to thank the players and the SLCA for this suggestion - it was a noble one."

According to Amarasuriya, the discussions were amicable and carried out in the right spirit despite the frustrations that had gone before.

"There was frustration on both sides as the negotiations were protracted and both sides were hardening," said Amarasuriya. "However, that is the way with contractual discussions."

He urged the ICC to find a permanent solution: "The ICC needs to step and solve this problem. If we are going to have this same problem in the next three tournaments then it could leave ugly scars."