Sri Lanka Cricket and its players are still battling with one another. The brief summary: SLC granted permission to contract with the IPL teams next year; the ECB pulled out of their invitation to Zimbabwe to tour to England; SLC signed up to tour to England instead; and SLC now want their top players to go to England instead of playing for the IPL. The Daily News says the players are reluctant to meet the SLC:

The Minister of Sports and Recreation Gamini Lokuge yesterday appointed Duleep Mendis Chief Executive Officer of Sri Lanka Cricket to mediate and resolve the crisis between the SLC Interim Committee and the players who have signed to play in next year’s Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament.

The second session of the high profile Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament will clash with Sri Lanka’s tour to England next year and the Minister was expected to deliver the final verdict following a discussion with both parties.

However the Minister was forced to delay the final decision as the players had informed their inability to attend the meeting. As a result Duleep Mendis former Sri Lanka captain and the Chief Executive Officer of the SLC took over the responsibilities of finding a solution for this issue.

The Daily Mirror writes that the players---Jayawardene, Muralitharan, and Jayasuriya, among others---are considering retirement:

SLC sources said that the cricketers had refused to budge and had warned that they are ready to take even extreme measures such as contemplating retirement from national team to honour the IPL contracts they have already signed, if they have no other choice. They have reportedly pointed out that the England tour was hastily arranged later by SLC officials without consulting the cricketers who were under IPL contracts.

The future of cricket will be about a combination of city based Twenty20 cricket and the occasinoal game of Test cricket. This is probably a good thing.