Lanka stars to stay on till May 18
CHENNAI: A head-on clash between the Board of Cont'rol for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) was averted on Thursday wi'th the island nation exte'n'd'i'ng the deadline for its pl'a'yers' return from the IPL till May 18, a compromise that pu''ts an end to uncertainty ov'er their availability.
Under pressure from the BCCI to extend the original May 5 deadline, SLC officials decided at a meeting with the country's sports minister Ma''''hindananda Aluthgamage that the players would be all'o'wed to participate in the ca'sh-rich event for an additional 13 days before leaving from Mumbai for their tour of England.
Eleven Sri Lankan players are currently in action in the IPL. SLC's cli'm'bdown would ap'pear to ha'''ve come after the BCCI ga've it a deadline to sort out the issue and th'reatened to withhold the 10% cut from the players' fee wh'ich SLC is due to get after the IPL.
After SLC's tough stand on Wednesday, indications of a compromise came when Aluthgamage said: 'I have rec'eived e-mail from the BCCI. We don't want to embarrass the BCCI. We have good relations with India and want to maintain this.'
On whether his earlier call for the players to return by May 5 was bec'ause of the alleged ill-treatment to Sri Lankan dignitaries during the World Cup fi''nal, he said: 'That is about protocol and this is about cr'icket. They are totally different issues.'
News Posted: 22 April, 2011
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