The coronavirus outbreak has taken the world by storm, killing more than 1,38,000 people and the global count of infected people crossing 2 million. The Covid-19 has also brought the sporting world to a halt, the biggest of which was the postponement of Indian Premier League (IPL) indefinitely. Several other major sporting tournaments also stand suspended in the time of this pandemic. The cancellation and suspension of events have impacted the revenues of the cricket boards.
However, the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) has taken a welcome move of not slashing salaries of it’s employees, amidst a spree of salary cut decisions made by a number of companies over the past two weeks, Cricket Age reliably learns.
“There will be no salary cut. Due to the Coronavirus crisis, an economic crisis is expected. Due to the Corona virus threat, we had to cancel England tour at the last moment and SLC is bound to incur huge losses in upcoming months, as all the sources of revenue have been curtailed. However, the board has decided that salaries of the employees will not be slashed” a top SLC administrator told Cricket Age.
In Sri Lanka, two large conglomerates implemented salary cuts last week due to Covid-19, namely premiere blue-chip John Keells Holdings PLC and Softlogic Holdings PLC. Softlogic on Wednesday (8) implemented salary reductions of all employees with a salary of Rs. 50,000 or above for a period of three months. Accordingly, the salary reductions will be between 5% and 30%, with employees in the salary range of Rs. 50,000 to 100,000 being docked 5% while those in the Rs. 1 million and above salary range being docked 30%. All bonuses and pay increases have also been put on hold for these three months.
Cricket Australia has also announced it is laying off most of its administrative staff and will run a skeleton operation until at least mid-year due to COVID-19’s impact on the game. The governing body informed the majority of staffers on Thursday that from April 27 they would have to remain home on reduced pay — reportedly 20 percent of their regular salary — until June 30 at the earliest.
However, SLC assures to remain in good financial health despite the deadlock.
“We will re-engineer our offering, use our resources carefully, and work harder, faster, and smarter to somehow weather the storm ahead. Our employees relentless commitment, determination, and adaptability are needed more than ever before,” the top SLC administrator added further.
Like any other country, International cricket has come to a halt in Sri Lanka as well. In March, the Lankans, led by Dimuth Karunaratne, were scheduled to lock horns with England in a Test series. But after how things panned out, the series in the World Test Championship (WTC) had to be shelved for the time being.
