23 SL players frozen out

Sri Lanka Cricket has frozen out 23 of its top players after a meeting on Saturday could not break the contract deadlock between the board and the nation's best cricketers. SLC has told its selectors not to consider those cricketers for any international cricket, including the Bangladesh series that begins on Friday, until the players agree to their new contract terms. Players' contracts expired on February 28, and all 60 players who were offered new contracts have refused to sign them before the March 2 deadline prescribed by the board.
"We spoke to all of the players present at the meeting, and gave our viewpoints and they also gave their points," SLC president Upali Dharmadasa said. "We have said, 'Nothing doing. We're going to stick to our guns.' It ended like that."
"They will not be getting any facilities that Sri Lanka Cricket has been offering them, including physios, masseurs and coaches. They can't come for practice at our venues.
New Test captain Angelo Mathews and Twenty20 captain Dinesh Chandimal are among the players frozen out, along with the bulk of Sri Lanka's Test and ODI players. Mathews and Chandimal were appointed captains just over two weeks ago, and are yet to play any matches in their new capacity.
Dharmadasa would not rule out the possibility of Sri Lanka's top cricketers playing in the first Test against Bangladesh in Galle, but only if the players signed their contracts by then. Kumar Sangakkara is the only player immediately affected by the lockout, as he will not be playing in the three-day tour match against Bangladesh in Matara, which begins on Sunday, as originally planned. The match was supposed to be Sangakkara's return to competitive cricket since fracturing his index finger in the Boxing Day Test.
The major point of dispute in the new contracts is SLC's refusal to pay the players 25 per cent of the board's earnings from ICC events, which they have done since 2003. This payment was made to players because their images are used by the ICC to promote the tournament, as well as by the ICC's sponsors, for the duration of the event.
Other points of contention include the board's move to freeze payment to cricketers taking part in the IPL for as long as he is with his IPL team, a clause tying pay to team performance, and the scrapping of a perk that allowed players' wives to travel on one tour a year on SLC's money.