Irrespective of when Covid-19 is overcome, or at least contained, the world has already changed. The economics of sport too is bound to change. It has to. In this uncertain time, the bigger question in Sri Lanka is that should national players and employees voluntarily take pay cuts?
Like any other cricket playing nation, Sri Lanka has also affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. The Island has already seen a two-match test series against England and ODI and T20 series against South Africa both postponed, while domestic season has also been cancelled.
Future also looks bleak, with planned limited-overs fixtures against India in July also remain in serious doubt and the health crisis has cast doubt over the coming Twenty20 World Cup as well.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) stands to lose over 300 million pounds if no cricket is played in the upcoming season in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. England’s centrally contracted players have decided to do their bit to keep the finances of English cricket secure, with the centrally contracted men donating £500,000 to the ECB and selected charities, while the women volunteered pay cuts for the next three months. This donation is the equivalent of a 20 per cent pay cut over three months.
Cricket Australia (CA) has laid off 80 per cent of its staff for the rest of the financial year which ends on June 30. The Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) has already assured Cricket Board that players are ready to take pay cuts any time if situation arises, as reports suggest that CA will run out of cash by August.
Even other sports have been forced to go for the pay cuts. Players of Top premier league football clubs like Aston Villa and Arsenal have already taken pay cuts, while some of the world’s greatest footballers like Messi and Christiano Ronaldo have themsalves offered pay cuts to their clubs.
In comparison, the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC), in the supervision of President Shammi Silva, pleasantly seems in a good financial situation. In March, after the virus outbreak, SLC won cricket fans heart by granting LKR 25 Million to country’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in government’s mountainous efforts to fight against the deadly disease. At the same time, SLC has also taken a courageous move of not slashing salaries of it’s employees, amidst a spree of salary cut decisions made by a number of companies in the country over the past two weeks.
However, irrespective of how much sincere efforts Shammi Silva is making, he needs support from others as future looks bleak, if no cricket being played in next six months. Cricket Age understands that with all these postponements of the high profile series against England, South Africa and India, the SLC is likely to lose a staggering 7.9 million dollars.
In this particular scenario, Sri Lanka national players, employees and top officials like CEO Ashley De Silva also must follow England and Australian cricketers and voluntarily take the pay cuts. At present, a total of 79 players have been contracted with SLC and national players have been placed in four categories.
If all these players and board employees also comes forward to support the system in this testing time, it will provide Sri Lanka Cricket much needed space to breathe with ease!
