IPL players can go ahead and retire if they want to - Arjuna

By Srian OBEYESEKERE and Jatila Karawita

Insisting that he would not let a handful of members of the Sri Lanka team to have their own way and calling the IPL a “private tour’, Sri Lanka Interim Committee Chairman, Arjuna Ranatunga said that he would not budge from his stand to have Sri Lanka honour its tour obligation with England next year in April-May.

“As far as Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is concerned we will not change our decision to send the Sri Lanka team to play in England. We have signed an MOU with England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and we have to honour that,” said Ranatunga the highly respected former Sri Lanka captain who was known to call a spade a spade during his playing days.

Ranatunga was in conversation with the ‘Sunday Observer’ yesterday on the current impasse between the senior players in the Sri Lanka team led by skipper Mahela Jayawardene who have threatened to retire and go ahead with the IPL if they do not receive the greenlight from the ICC and SLC to do so.

“They need to sign a two-year contract with the ICC and SLC even if they are to retire and go to the IPL,” contended Ranatunga. The players at the centre of the row with SLC are Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralidaran, Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, T.M. Dilshan and Ajantha Mendis. Of course, Ranatunga said that if the President or Sports Minister steps in and take a decision that was another thing.

Ranatunga further pointed out that SLC had never signed a contract with the IPL contracted Lankan players permitting them to play in the IPL whenever they wanted to. “We gave them the greenlight to play only in the inaugural IPL tournament,” he noted.

Ranatunga stood firm like in his playing days when he strongly defended what he thought was right saying that even if the players went ahead and retired his duty was to look after Sri Lanka cricket. He however insisted that the IPL would not have in its fold retired players.

“In fact, IPL big shot Lalith Modi had even indicated to Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds that IPL would not have retired players,” said Ranatunga referring to the Australian who is in a spat with his team management over a disciplinary issue.

But while saying that Ranatunga insisted that the media had distorted a previous report that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had asked him to give into a demand of the cricketers to go and play in the next IPL.

“That was a wrong information. The President never asked us to cancel the England tour and let the players go for the IPL.What the President told me was to try to make a shift so that they could play in both,” Ranatunga told the ‘Sunday Observer.’

Ranatunga elaborated that the players concerned had never informed SLC about a long term contract with the IPL. The current crisis threatening Sri Lanka cricket that has come with the commercial arm opening itself to players in big money is probably the worst one since the infamous rebel tour undertaken by then captain Bandula Warnapura and some others to South Africa which led to a life ban being imposed on those players by the then BCCSL President Gamini Dissanayake.