Court of Appeal proposes possibility of administrative settlement in writ applications filed by national cricketers

THE petitions filed by two national male cricket captains and the female cricketers were taken up yesterday for argument before Court of Appeal President Justice Rohantha Abeysuriya, PC, and Justice Priyantha Fernando.

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The petitioners, Charith Asalanka and Dhananjaya de Silva, as the respective captains of the One Day International and Twenty20 cricket teams and the Test team, had challenged the Inland Revenue Department's decision to classify Sri Lanka’s national cricketers as employees of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The petition was authorised by several other players including Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mahesh Theekshana, Kusal Mendis, and Kusal Perera.

The cricketers challenged the Inland Revenue Department's decision on the basis that it had retrospectively imposed Advance Personal Income Tax (APIT) from 2023 by classifying them as employees.