The turmoil in Sri Lankan cricket has hit a new low with former Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews likely to retire from international cricket. Mathews, the senior most among the current crop of players, and Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne found themselves excluded from the contracts that were offered on Wednesday morning. An unhappy Mathews has reportedly written to the SLC administration stating that he is considering retirement. He is expected to make a formal announcement of his intentions in a few days. Mathews has also opted out of India series due to personal reasons. What the SLC did on Wednesday was to offer contracts on the basis of each tour, a SLC source said. There will be no annual contracts as the immediate need was to sign players for the series against India, he said.
The source said that all players who had previously refused to sign contracts did sign them on Wednesday after they were given a July 8 deadline. Under the SLC's performance-based pay plan, 24 of the leading players had been offered contracts under four categories. In the categories released, only six players were in category A and their annual pay ranged between USD 70,000 to 100,000. Reports said all-rounder Dhananjaya de Silva and wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella were offered the highest pay grade of USD 100,000 each. Mathews, 34, last played for Sri Lanka in a Test match against Bangladesh in April. Mathews is one of the finest all-rounders to have played for the Lankan Lions. He quit captaincy in 2017 but remained an integral part of the national team. So far, he has played 90, Tests, 218 ODIs, and 49 T20Is, scoring 13219 runs and scalping 191 wickets. The 34-year-old Mathews was not a part of the squad that toured England recently
