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Sri Lanka cricket offers innovative retainer contracts; Dickewella and de Silva get top grades

In a recent move by Sri Lanka Cricket, the board has announced retainer contracts to 24 Men’s players, which is eight less than the previous year’s 32. While wicket-keeper batsman and all format player Nirisan Dickwella along with all-rounder Dhananjaya de Silva got the top A1 grade and would be paid remuneration worth USD 100,000 for the 2021-22 season, Veteran batsman Dinesh Chandimal was pushed to C2, the fifth-lowest grading on a 12 point grading system. 

Tom Moody, the Director of Cricket Sri Lanka and Arvinda de Silva, Cricket Technical Committee chief explained the grading system which was an accumulation of 100 points earned by a player through parameters such as Performance (out of 50), Fitness (out of 20), Leadership (out of 10), Professionalism (out of 10) and Future Potential and Adaptability (out of 10).

While the Test skipper Dimuth Karunaratne is in A3 grade and the ODI skipper Kusal Perera is in A2, the surprising part is the grade of B1 given to T20I skipper Dasun Shanaka. To finalise this year’s contract, previous year’s and 2019-20 season’s performances were considered for grading. All players will have to sign their contracts by June 3.

Apart from the national contracts, there is also a provision for a Domestic annually renewable Development Contract which will be available to six players aged under 25 and will be renewed for three years after which those players would not get that contract any further. There is also a provision for Incremental Contract for players who do not have either national or domestic development contracts. To gain this, a player must gain 10 points on a system that would give three points for a Test appearance and one point each for T20I and ODI appearance. 

Players like Praveen Jayawickrama, who recently made a sensational debut in Test cricket picking a five-for in his very first innings against Bangladesh could benefit from the Incremental contract as he has not been placed in any grade of the central contract for this year. 

The Sri Lankan ODI team is currently in Bangladesh for a three-match ODI series against the hosts beginning May 23.

Contract Grade Breakdown

A1 (USD 100,000): Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella

A2 (USD 80,000): Kusal Perera, Angelo Mathews

A3 (USD 70,000): Kusal Mendis, Dimuth Karunaratne

B1 (USD 65,000): Suranga Lakmal, Dasun Shanaka

B2 (USD 60,000): Wanindu Hasaranga, Lasith Embuldeniya

B3 (USD 55,000): Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Thirimanne

C1 (USD 50,000): Dushmantha Chameera, Kasun Rajitha

C2 (USD 45,000): Dinesh Chandimal, Lakshan Sandakan

C3 (USD 40,000): Vishwa Fernando, Isuru Udana

D1 (USD 35,000): Ramesh Mendis, Oshada Fernando

D2 (USD 30,000): Danushka Gunathilaka, Lahiru Kumara

D3 (USD 25,000): Ashen Bandara, Akila Dananjaya

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