Muralitharan blames senior cricketers for pay dispute

FORMER Sri Lanka spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan has blamed four senior members of the national cricket team for the precipitation of the pay dispute with the country’s board.

Many players, including former captains Angelo Mathews and Kusal Perera, have been involved in a long-standing dispute with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) over central contracts.

Several cricketers had refused to sign the contracts with the board after agreeing to play against England on a tour contract.

They were said to have not signed the contracts over transparency issues, but Muralitharan said it was mainly because senior cricketers got less pay under the new performance-based system.

"This year we think they don't need a central contract, we can go with tour contracts," Muralitharan told Hiru TV.

The cricketers have signed tour contracts ahead of the India series beginning on July 18

Muralitharan, 49, Test cricket's highest wicket-taker with 800 scalps, said that the senior cricketers “did not allow younger ones to sign the contracts because of their pay cut”.

Now that the players did not take it when it was offered by the board, Muralitharan said that they “will not get central contracts”.

Several senior players who are not part of the white-ball set-up are now without deals after Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) withdrew the offer of annual contracts.

Some players had later agreed to sign the central contracts after transparency details were revealed, but SLC only offered them tour contracts.

Thanks to SLC's new move, cricketers will not be paid on a monthly basis anymore, making the Test players the worst affected as they have no tours scheduled until November.