Sri Lanka cricketers left for India last night to take part in the hastily arranged five-match ODI series against India amidst huge behind the screen drama as national coach Marvan Atapattu had left without signing his full employment contract over a dispute over benefits in the original contract offered to him by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
SLC Sources said that the former Sri Lanka skipper had threatened to make the tour only in the official capacity of Assistant Coach as his full contract had not been finalised by the SLC before the tour.
However a senior official told “Daily Mirror” last night that Atapattu had finally agreed to travel in the capacity of national coach and has already been given his appointment letter as national coach for two full years ahead, though the parties would agree on final contract terms upon Sri Lanka team’s return from India.
Last afternoon, SLC Chief Executive Ashley de Silva wrote to the SLC Executive Committee members to inform that SLC President Jayantha Dharmadasa had not been in favour of changing the earlier contractual terms agreed upon by SLC and Atapattu.
“As per the discussion the President had with me while ago, he has expressed his displeasure of Marvan’s failure to sign the contract as per the terms which has been mutually agreed by both parties. The President has insisted that Marvan should proceed on the Tour as the Head Coach and there should not be any compromise,” de Silva wrote to exco members.
According to another email from de Silva to SLC officials sent last Thursday, Atapattu had initially been offered a package at a monthly salary of Rs. 1.3 million SLR along with other standard components common to his job category in SLC cadre.
It said, Atapttu had agreed to the package on offer but requested for a SLC maintained car in place of the car allowance being paid hitherto. The panel had agreed to it and the package had been approved by SLC EXCO on September 24.
Further, Atapattu had offered to work as a consultant and SLC had formulated a consultative agreement exclusively for this position which SLC had intended to be used for all consultants in future.
The new agreement had been made available to Atapattu on October 6, but he had “seemingly not very much convinced about it” stated de Silva.
SLC had then made some amendments to the agreement such as the EXIT clause before completion of one year
Atapattu had then forwarded his own draft on last Wednesday “with significant changes/ amendments” to the SLC draft, de Silva had stated to the exco. “It was manifested that Marvan had added/reinforced clauses to cover his best interests,” de Silva had stated.
In the terms offered by SLC to national coach had included a meal allowance, SLC maintained car, 150 litres of petrol, standard tour per-diems, incentive bonuses, Mobile phone and monthly allowance, laptop with dongle, family hospitalisation/OPD insurance in addition to the monthly salary of Rs. 1.3 million.
However in addition to all the offered terms, Atapattu had asked for a further Travelling benefit of Rs. 50,000, SLC Maintained brand new Car commensurate with his status, Rs. 2.6 million Holiday package benefit for the contractual period and a ten percent increment upon completion of one year in the job.
SLC had included clause to review Atapattu’s performance after a period of one year, though he had been offered a two-year contract. However Atapattu had also demanded to remove that clause.
අතපත්තුවත් දැන් පොඩ්ඩ පොඩ්ඩ ගෑස් පෙන්නනව වගෙ