SLC upset with Jayawardene

Colombo - A major rift in Sri Lankan cricket deepened on Saturday when the national governing body said Test captain Mahela Jayawardene and team manager Charith Senanayake had breached their contracts by going public with complaints about the leaking of a supposedly confidential memo.

Jayawardene had sent a memo to Sri Lanka Cricket last week suggesting that fees from this year's World Twenty20 tournament should be shared with support staff, coaches and ground staff - a request that was denied by SLC, which did not want to deviate from standard practice.

The memo and the SLC's response then appeared in the local Daily Mirror newspaper. Jayawardene was angered that the memo went public and wrote a letter to the newspaper saying he had lost faith in SLC as a result.

SLC said on Saturday that Jayawardene and Senanayake should not have contacted the media directly and said it will review the matter.

The governing body did not explain how the private documents were leaked or by who, but did acknowledge the SLC treasurer spoke to the newspaper when he was contacted for clarification of the administration's position.

Jayawardene has said he will step down from the captaincy at the end of the current tour of Australia.