Colombo, Sep 7: Sri Lanka has decided to act tough with national players who are refusing to go ahead with the England tour. The Sri Lankan Cricket Committee have decided to go ahead with strict actions if any player fails to obey the diktats of the board. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Interim Committee Chairman Arjuna Ranatunga stressed that he would not budge from his stand in honouring Sri Lanka’s tour obligation with England next year.
“As far as SLC is concerned we will not change our decision to send the Sri Lanka team to play in England. We have signed an MoU with England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and we have to honour that,” the State-run Sunday Observer quoted Ranatunga, well-known as “Captain Cool” as saying.

The former World Cup winning Sri Lankan captain Ranatunga, who was well-known for backing players on and off the field during his playing days, has clarified his stand saying that his duty was to look after Sri Lanka cricket even if the players went ahead and retired from the national team to partake in the IPL tournament.

Claiming that SLC had “never signed” a contract with the IPL contracted Lankan players permitting them to play in the IPL whenever they wanted to, Ranatunga has said that the players were given “the green light to pad only in the inaugural IPL tournament”.

“They need to sign a two-year contract with the ICC and SLC even if they are to retire and go to the IPL,” Ranatunga clarified the stand.
Sri Lanka is supposed to play two Tests and three one-dayers in May next year in England and the time table is clashing with the 2009 IPL tournament, which was ironically approved by SLC for the national players to play.

The players argue that the IPL contracts had been signed long before the idea of a tour to England was mooted. They want to go ahead with their initial commitments.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardane, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Pervez Mahroof, Thilakaratne Dishan, Dilhara Fernando and Ajantha Mendis are some of the key players who have signed three-year contracts with the IPL.

As per some unconfirmed reports, some players are even considering of retiring from the national team in order to honour the IPL contracts which they have already signed.

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LONDON- French pride took a fresh hammering on Saturday when the national team were smashed 3-1 in Austria as Europe’s big guns began their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaigns.

The day also witnessed Italy snatching a 2-1 stoppage-time win in Cyprus, European champions Spain edged Bosnia 1-0, Germany crushed Liechtenstein 6-0 and England were booed before beating Andorra 2-0.

France coach Raymond Domenech found it a hard time to justify the debacle Domenech, who is bound to come under renewed fire from the French media, had promised that France would come victorious in Vienna after the fiasco at Euro 2008.

However, goals from Marc Janko, Rene Aufhauser and Andreas Ivanschitz left them reeling in Group Seven as Austria marked the first competitive game of new coach Karel Brueckner with a magnificent victory.

“It’s never nice to lose,” Domenech told later to reporters. “I have my feelings about what happened but I need to watch the game on video to confirm my impressions.”

World champions Italy made a grand start as Marcello Lippi began a second term in charge of the Azzurri, having steered them to 2006 World Cup glory over France.

Two goals from Antonio Di Natale, the second a stoppage-time winner,helped them to grab a 2-1 victory over Cyprus in their Group Eight opener in Larnaca.

Former Real Madrid coach Vicente Del Bosque began his reign as coach of Spain with a home victory in Group Five against Bosnia, courtesy of David Villa’s second half strike.
Del Bosque took over from Luis Aragones after Spain’s Euro 2008 final victory over Germany.

The Germans were found more convincing on Saturday in their Group Four demolition of Liechtenstein, that helped by two goals from Lukas Podolski either side of halftime. England, with Italian coach Fabio Capello kicking off his first international qualifying campaign, garnered a victory against Andorra in Barcelona in Group Six, although the travelling England fans booed the team at halftime.

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