So what if the Indian Premier League is backed by the BCCI, the richest cricket governing body; Arjuna Ranatunga, the chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), is very much against it. Reason… A huge revenue loss. Ranatunga is upset by the fact that the national board does not gain any revenue for Sri Lankan players playing in the Twenty20 League.
Therefore, as corrective measures, the SLC has brought about some changes in its modus operandi. Here on, if any organization wishes to sign any sort of contract with any Sri Lankan player, it first has to cross a barrier called ‘the Sri Lankan Cricket Board’. The SLC will be the sole representatives of its players and will be liable to a particular amount of revenue earned from any future contract signed with other organizations. The role of player agents will also be reduced.
“The issue with some of the players is that through their agents they go and sign with certain organisations unknown to us and eventually get into a conflict with SLC,” Ranatunga said. “One thing the players should remember is that they are employees of SLC. Every year, we sign about 40 cricketers from the national and `A` teams. We give them very attractive contracts.” “It is SLC that looks after the players from the junior level and brings them to the level of national cricket by spending a lot of money. The SLC is therefore duty-bound to earn some money from these cricketers rather than allow them to make payments to some agent outside. This way, we will safeguard our cricketers and make use of the money for cricket development.”
“We release these players for one and a half months but SLC does not gain any benefit. This is very unfair. In future, SLC will become the agents for its contracted cricketers and we hope to earn a lot of revenue though that. We are getting some advice from the legal side on how to go about it,” he said.
This change in rules, however, will not overrule the sports ministry’s decision of the Sri Lankan players playing in the IPL 2009 season instead of the England series. Ranatunga had earlier negotiated a series in England next year, which has now been put on hold due to clash of dates with the BCCI-backed League.
“If we get a directive from the minister of sport to release our top cricketers to play in a domestic cricket tournament in India, we have no right to question it,” Ranatunga said.
Ranatunga clearly blamed the IPL for the cancellation of series and said that this has resulted in huge loss of revenue. However, efforts are being made to plan out a possible participation in the Stanford 20/20 quadrangular in 2010, for which, talks are currently under progress with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
“Because of the IPL, Sri Lanka will be losing a lot of money,” he said. “We won`t be able to play the postponed one-day triangular with India and South Africa slotted for next year. India has postponed that series because of the IPL. Likewise, we will lose USD 2 million on the England tour, money which we can make use for the development of our cricket.