COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan cricketers have agreed to compete against England on a tour-specific contract but would not sign the annual contracts unless governing body SLC explains the evaluation process.
Sri Lanka are scheduled to tour England for three Twenty20s and as many ODIs between June 18 and July 4.
Following a stormy round of talks, the players were told by the management that they would either call off the England tour or send a third string side.
The players told the management they would sign a tour-specific contract but need more time to sign the annual contracts.
The players had defied a June 3 deadline to sign the contracts, citing lack of transparency in the process.
While defying the deadline the players said they were willing to play for the country even if the administration decided not to pay salaries due to their refusing to enter contracts.
At the height of the dispute and negotiations last month, the players said remuneration proposed to players were more than 3-fold lower than payments made to players of other counties.
The SLC had by then announced that 24 of the leading players had been offered contracts under four categories and they had been given a deadline until 3 June to sign them.
In the categories released only six players featured in the category A and their annual pay ranges between 70,000 to 100,000 US dollars.
The batsman, Dhananjaya de Silva draws highest – 100,000 with the rest of them were to receive 70-80,000 US dollars.
The players then took exception to the decision by the SLC to make public specific payment details of players saying the disclosures amount to a grave security concern to each and every player.
They claimed that the SLC decision to make public pay details of players had affected their self-confidence and peace of mind.