Michael de Zoysa confirmed as national team manager till next World Cup

An SLC ex-co member told “Daily Mirror” that at the last ex-co meeting held last month, they decided to terminate the services of Sri Lanka team manager Michael de Zoysa if he refused to sign contract documents before the his previous contract expired.

De Zoysa’s contract was to expire at the end of the ICC World T20 tournament played in Bangladesh, but he had left for Bangladesh without signing the next contract to renew his appointment as his demand for a hundred percent salary increase and enhancement of other allowances had been refused by SLC ex-co.

So at an SLC ex-co meeting held at SLC Headquarters during the ICC World T20, the members had decided to not renew his contract if he fails to sign it before his existing contract expired.

“Surprisingly he had signed the contract renewal documents the same night and had sent it to SLC,” revealed the exco member.

SLC Chief Executive Ashley de Silva confirmed that de Zoysa has signed his contract and that they have issued him an appointment letter retaining him in the position till the end of next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Earlier, in October last year SLC ex-co extended de Zoysa’s employment contract till the end of the ICC World T20 as it was originally to expire on February 25 this year.

Then, in December last year, CEO de Silva and SLC Head of Cricket Operations Carlton Bernardus submitted a board paper to the SLC ex-co presenting de Zoya’s demands for the renewal of his contract.

However the ex-co rejected this demand which made de Zoysa delay signing the contract.According to that document de Zoysa had asked his monthly salary to be increased to Rs. 400,000 from the Rs. 200,000 he was receiving.

Among his other demands were to increase the tour allowance during outbound tours to US $ 100 per day which is equivalent to the tour allowance of national selectors. He was getting US $ 75 per day. He didn’t ask for an increase in his allowance of US $ 50 for in-bound tours.He also asked for his vehicles allowance to be increased to Rs. 60,000 from the Rs. 50,000 he is getting now.

He had not asked for an increase of his meal allowance which is Rs. 4600 but asked the fuel bill to be increased to Rs. 50,000 per month from the current 150 litres per month which came approximately to Rs. 25,000. He had also asked for an enhancement of his monthly phone bill to be Rs. 7500 from the current Rs. 5000.

The submission claimed it was the wish list submitted by de Zoysa, who however had later agreed to renew the contract despite SLC rejecting it.