Sri Lanka national players were not paid since World Cup due to SLC's financial crisis

About 100 contracted players are not paid since Sri Lanka co-hosted the World Cup together with India and Bangladesh, last year.

Part of the outstanding salaries was paid in December, last year.

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage’s instructions come after Bank of Ceylon (BoC) agreed to release 600 million rupees ($5 million) to pay pending salaries of the contracted players until end of February, a statement issued by the ministry said.

Kumar Sangakkara

It added that the player's salaries for March 2012 "would be paid on time."

The player payments for the month of March 2012 would be paid on time Sports ministry statement

"Minister Aluthgamage also had instructed the officials of SLC not to overlook contract payments in the future and Sri Lanka Cricket should take the full responsibility to ensure that the player payments are made on time in the future," said the ministry statement.

The capital expenditure on the recent World Cup left the country's richest sports body facing a sizeable debt.

The newly elected SLC president Upali Dharmadasa, earlier told BBC Sinhala service that at least five years will be needed to resolve its financial crisis.

"We have almost completed the assessment of outstanding payments so I think, in my personal opinion, it will take at least five years to come out of all this," he said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's former skipper Kumar Sangakkara has become the third Sri Lankan to score 10,000 One Day International runs while playing against Australia during the Commonwealth tri-series.

Sri Lanka beat Australia by eight wickets on Friday in the sixth ODI according to Duckworth Lewis method.