No COVID-19 virus pay cuts for national contracted cricketers

Sri Lanka cricketers have not had any international cricket since playing West Indies in March this year

• Bangladesh cricket tour: SLC to meet Health Ministry officials

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

With the Bangladesh cricket team showing renewed interest in wanting to tour Sri Lanka sometime this year, Sri Lanka Cricket are making elaborate arrangements to make it a reality amidst the COVID-19 epidemic that has brought sports to a standstill in most countries worldwide.

“We are hoping to meet with the Health Ministry officials sometime next week and discuss the quarantine period that any team travelling to Sri Lanka has to undergo. We have also to share our health guidelines with them as well,” said Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva.

“We are currently in talks with the Bangladesh Cricket Board but nothing is finalised yet. We don’t know for sure the dates we can accommodate them. It could be sometime during the year,” he said.

In June, Sri Lanka Cricket announced that Bangladesh will not be touring the country in July to play a three-Test series, forming part of the ICC World Test Championship, but the series will be pushed back to a later date.

According to SLC, Bangladesh had cited “lack of preparation for its players caused by the COVID-19 pandemic” as the reason for the postponement.

However following the ICC’s decision to defer the 2020 men’s World T20 in Australia by a year to 2021 the Bangladesh Cricket Board has renewed its interest to resume the tour to Sri Lanka.

The BCB’s chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury was quoted saying, “The ICC’s announcement of the three major tournaments has provided what window we can work with, as now that we know that the tournament dates are fixed, we can work around with our schedule.”

Sri Lanka last played an international match in the first week of March against the West Indies and since then they have had tours by England, South Africa, India and Bangladesh to the country postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile SLC has taken a decision not to burden their 30-odd contracted national cricketers with pay cuts, although they have been inactive on the international field since March this year.

Cricketers from England and Australia have undergone coronavirus pay cuts as their respective governing bodies have tried to deal with the financial impact of the pandemic.

However Sri Lanka Cricket seems to be on a better financial footing than the ECB and CA and have decided to pay the cricketers their full salary.

“As there is no international cricket being played at present the players are not getting the extra remunerations that comes along with playing international matches. They are getting only their monthly salaries and we don’t want to further deprive them of their income,” said De Silva.