SRI LANKA CRICKET’S DECISION OF CALLING THEIR PLAYERS BACK FROM IPL

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) condemned Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) decision of calling back their players early from the Indian Premier League and revealed that the board is in negotiations with the SLC to fix the issue.

BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla also unveiled that the Sri Lankans were supposed to stay in India till the 21^stof May as it was mutually decided by the boards of both the countries and franchises are also bearing out the same agreement. He added that the Sri Lankan board now wanted the early return of their players, which is not fair.

"Nothing has been decided as yet. The BCCI president is in touch with the Sri Lankan board and some kind of a dialogue is going on between the two boards," he said.

The tensions between the boards of both the countries started when Sri Lankan government forced SLC to ask all their players playing in the IPL to return home by the 5^th of May in a bid to prepare for the England tour which starts with a Test Match on the 26^th of May. The tour includes three Tests, one Twent20 and five One-Day internationals.

BCCI sent a request to the Sri Lankan board asking that the star players should be allowed to play in the Twenty20 format tournament at least till the mid of May. However, SLC did not pay any heed to their request and simply stayed firm on their demand.

The main Sri Lankan players which are currently playing in the IPL include Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Lasith Malinga and the newly appointed Sri Lankan captain, Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Jayawardene is leading the new team Kochi Tuskers Kerala as their skipper while Sangakkara, who stepped down as the Sri Lankan captain following their defeat in the World Cup 2011 final, is leading the Deccan Chargers.

Media reports revealed that BCCI may strike back by asking franchises to seize the players’ salaries and may also refuse to pay SLC its share of 10 percent from the players’ incomes.

Shukla however, denied the reports saying that BCCI does not have any such intentions and is trying to sort out the issue through dialogue.