Sri Lanka's leading run-getter in both versions of the game, Aravinda de Silva, has not been offered a contract by the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL).

BCCSL sources said that de Silva's name was not submitted to them by the national selection committee who drew up the list of 13 players contracted for the next 12 months.

De Silva said that he had not heard from the Cricket Board with regard to the contract.

"The previous Cricket Board had discussions with me. But I couldn't follow it up with the Interim Board as I was out of the country when the contract was signed," said de Silva.

De Silva went to Bangladesh to represent an Asian XI and then was away on a private trip.

This is the first time that 35-year-old de Silva, scorer of 5,952 runs in 89 Tests and 8,430 runs in 275 One-Day Internationals has not been offered a contract.

Since the national team was revamped with young blood following the disastrous showing at the 1999 World Cup, de Silva has been retained in the side principally for the Test matches.

He has appeared in 13 of Sri Lanka's last 21 Tests since then, scoring 722 runs (avg. 36.10) with two centuries and two fifties.

With Sri Lanka due to play only six Tests in the next 12 months against India (August) and Zimbabwe (December - both at home), and de Silva not being an automatic choice for the one-day matches, the national selectors have thought of releasing him from the contract.

It does not, however, prevent him from being selected for the national teams. He will be paid on a match-by-match appearance basis.

Hashan Tillakaratne, another senior player, is also not under contract. Like de Silva he too will be paid on match appearance basis provided he is selected. De Silva and Tillakaratne are members of the 22-strong pool presently preparing to host a tri-nation one-day series with India and New Zealand and play India in a series of three Tests.

The new contracts provide the top players with an annual fee of US$40,000(approx. Rs. 3.6 million) with provision to go over US$50,000 (approx. Rs. 4.5 million) by way of bonuses and tour fees. The fringe players receive something like US$2,500 (approx. Rs. 225,000) annually.

The 13 contracted players are: Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, Marvan Atapattu, Chaminda Vaas, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Kumar Sangakkara, Nuwan Zoysa, Upul Chandana, Kumar Dharmasena, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando.

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