23 June,2011 08:50 AM IST | | Bipin Dani
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is willing to offer contracts to all Indian players, if they are allowed by the BCCI to participate in the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL), a top SLC board official revealed yesterday.
It is learnt that at present the contracts have been issued by the Singapore-based company, Somerset Entertainment Ventures Pvt Ltd, holder of the tournament's marketing rights.
"If the BCCI has any doubts about the company, they are willing to give a bank guarantee to SLC for payments to the Indian players. This is the argument that the SLC board officials will put forward to BCCI officials in their meeting on Thursday," said a source.
Even as the India board has reservations about their players' participation in the first edition of the SLPL, scheduled to be played from July 19 to August 4, SLC have already received support from the Australian, South African and New Zealand boards.
"We have no problem with our players participating in the Sri Lankan Premier League. In fact we would encourage players to do so outside of their international commitments. We hope the Sri Lankan Cricket Board and their players will support our domestic competitions in the same way if they were asked to participate in the HRV Cup", Hearth Mills, the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association chief said.
"It is our strong position that it would be viewed as a Restraint of Trade to stop players from working for another organisation if they have no obligations to their national board at that time. If New Zealand Cricket did not automatically give an NOC to any player, we would challenge that legally," said Mills.
"With regard to the BCCI position on their players participating in the Sri Lankan event, we understand that the Sri Lankan Board is working with an external company to deliver their event which is common practice in the sports world. Much like the BCCI use IMG to help deliver the IPL.
If it was any outsider hosting the event and not the Sri Lankan Board, then it cannot be approved under ICC rules. So, that position of the BCCI doesn't make sense," Mills added.u00a0u00a0
