Sri Lanka Cricket has announced the list of 18 cricketers have signed the national player contracts. Their contracts came into effect from 1 August, and will end on 31 December this year. Angelo Mathews, along with the three suspended players – Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella – is not on the list.
‘The players signed the contracts without any deviation from the contracts offered previously, which was formulated by Sri Lanka Cricket along with the Technical Advisory Committee,’ SLC explained in a release. ‘The players were chosen under four categories and were nominated by the Selection Panel, based on a set of criteria such as Performance, Fitness, Leadership/Seniority, Professionalism/Code of Conduct, and Future/Adaptability’.
SLC shared the criteria and the allocation of points to the players individually before they signed their contracts.
They clarified that Mathews was not in the list because he is ‘currently unavailable for selection’. Last month, Mathews had been in discussion with SLC about his retirement plans, but there has been no formal announcement yet. He did not feature in the limited-overs series against India in July. He last played for Sri Lanka during the West Indies tour, earlier this year.
The list of contracts: Kusal Perera, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dhananjaya De Silva, Dimuth Karunaratne, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Embuldeniya, Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dushmantha Chameera, Dinesh Chandimal, Lakshan Sandakan, Vishwa Fernando, Oshada Fernando, Ramesh Mendis, Lahiru Kumara, Ashen Bandara and Akila Dananjaya.