By Revatha S. Silva
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Amila Aponsu is one of the main left-arm spinners at the highest national level. He plays for Ragama Cricket Club[/caption]
“Depressed, distressed, and disheartened, a large number of Sri Lanka national and first-class cricketers are planning to migrate to the USA for professional cricket, sending shockwaves to country’s cricket future,” The Morning said on 17 February in our back-page lead story.
Joining Shehan Jayasuriya, who had already migrated to USA then, would be more than a dozen, we revealed in that report in February and yesterday (10) another leading national white-ball cricketer Amila Aponsu joined the fray indicating a slow but sure player exodus to the US!
Who have applied to migrate?
“He (Aponsu) is scheduled to leave middle of June (allegedly on 14 June) to play and coach in the US with the intention of one day representing the USA team,” said a highly-placed source in the current domestic cricket setup yesterday. Aponsu, a left-arm orthodox spinner who plays for Ragama Cricket Club, played in nine ODIs and three T20Is for Sri Lanka, during 2016-18, taking 14 wickets at 32.57.
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Our back-page lead story revealing “A large-scale player exodus” on 17 February 2021[/caption]
“A lot of players will soon go to America. It will happen in two categories; emerging and national. Shehan Jayasuriya is already gone. Around 15 more to follow him by March,” we quoted an inside source in our February report which also added, “The players who are to retire and migrate to play for USA soon include allegedly Amila Aponso, Malinda Pushpakumara, Dilshan Munaweera, Lahiru Madushanka, Manoj Sarathchandra, and Nishan Peiris.”
No other option
“After the cricket board’s (Sri Lanka Cricket) recent proposal to reduce money and not to extend our (second-level squads’) annual contracts, many players are planning to go. They are paid a minimum of $ 50,000 (approximately Rs. 9.7 million) per year in the US. USA is presently hiring players from various Test-playing countries with a view to forming a good national side,” an SLC emerging-category player, who too has applied to go to the USA, told the Morning Sports in February.
“There will be a major player exodus happening. There is no strong future that is assured for us here in Sri Lanka. We dedicated our school education for our cricket. We can’t even find a suitable job now. There are no series for Sri Lanka (in the second-level sides) in near future. If the cricket board is not paying us and looking after us, why are we to miss this opportunity? We can at least try to play for the USA,” the above player explained then.
Amila Aponsu is one of the main left-arm spinners at the highest national level. He plays for Ragama Cricket Club[/caption]
“Depressed, distressed, and disheartened, a large number of Sri Lanka national and first-class cricketers are planning to migrate to the USA for professional cricket, sending shockwaves to country’s cricket future,” The Morning said on 17 February in our back-page lead story.
Joining Shehan Jayasuriya, who had already migrated to USA then, would be more than a dozen, we revealed in that report in February and yesterday (10) another leading national white-ball cricketer Amila Aponsu joined the fray indicating a slow but sure player exodus to the US!
Who have applied to migrate?
“He (Aponsu) is scheduled to leave middle of June (allegedly on 14 June) to play and coach in the US with the intention of one day representing the USA team,” said a highly-placed source in the current domestic cricket setup yesterday. Aponsu, a left-arm orthodox spinner who plays for Ragama Cricket Club, played in nine ODIs and three T20Is for Sri Lanka, during 2016-18, taking 14 wickets at 32.57.
[caption id="attachment_142153" align="alignleft" width="357"] Our back-page lead story revealing “A large-scale player exodus” on 17 February 2021[/caption]
“A lot of players will soon go to America. It will happen in two categories; emerging and national. Shehan Jayasuriya is already gone. Around 15 more to follow him by March,” we quoted an inside source in our February report which also added, “The players who are to retire and migrate to play for USA soon include allegedly Amila Aponso, Malinda Pushpakumara, Dilshan Munaweera, Lahiru Madushanka, Manoj Sarathchandra, and Nishan Peiris.”
No other option
“After the cricket board’s (Sri Lanka Cricket) recent proposal to reduce money and not to extend our (second-level squads’) annual contracts, many players are planning to go. They are paid a minimum of $ 50,000 (approximately Rs. 9.7 million) per year in the US. USA is presently hiring players from various Test-playing countries with a view to forming a good national side,” an SLC emerging-category player, who too has applied to go to the USA, told the Morning Sports in February.
“There will be a major player exodus happening. There is no strong future that is assured for us here in Sri Lanka. We dedicated our school education for our cricket. We can’t even find a suitable job now. There are no series for Sri Lanka (in the second-level sides) in near future. If the cricket board is not paying us and looking after us, why are we to miss this opportunity? We can at least try to play for the USA,” the above player explained then.