Sri Lankan players win their contract battle against SLC

Colombo: With the limited overs series against India about to start in another three days time, the Sri Lankan cricketers finally won their four-month long battle against their employers Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and will be signing the annual contracts by on Thursday.

"Players will sign the contracts tomorrow or day after. They have their morning and evening schedules. So whenever they are free they will come and sign it," SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga told local newspaper `Daily Mirror`. Earlier, Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene had declared during Monday`s SLPL launch that the players would not sign the SLPL contracts till the central contracts are settled. The central contracts for the year 2012 were to be signed before March 31 this year but were delayed as the Sri Lanka Cricketers Association and SLC could not agree on the new contracts. As a result the players had to carry on without central contracts for four months since April and have not been paid their salaries. Ranatunga said that the final issues were settled on Monday and the players have agreed to sign the contracts. SLC however had to budge from their stance and had to change the clauses which the players did not agree upon as the agreement was finally clinched in the nick of time before a contract deadline which was set for Tuesday. PTI