COLOMBO: Sri Lanka stars Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene are facing disciplinary action for their public criticism of cricket board officials in a dispute over their retirement from Twenty20 internationals.

Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement on Tuesday that it decided to refer the “unsubstantiated statements” of the players to the disciplinary committee “for their views and recommendations.” Sangakkara and Jayawardene, on their return home from the World Twenty20 triumph in Bangladesh this month, hit out at board officials who criticized them for announcing their retirement from the shortest format of the game to the media before discussing it with officials.

At a news conference arranged at the airport to welcome the team, the two stalwarts said they were only responding to media queries when they said the tournament was their last World Twenty20 and they never mentioned retirement.

However, they said SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga and chief executive Ashley de Silva criticized them in the media without ascertaining if they really made such a statement.

The two players played crucial hands in the final against India, and Sangakkara’s match-winning half century won him the player of the match award.

Both players subsequently handed letters of resignation from T20 internationals to the cricket board.

Coach quits

Sri Lanka coach Paul Farbrace resigned on Tuesday just three months into his two-year contract to become the England assistant coach.

Sri Lanka Cricket announced Farbrace’s move in a statement.

The SLC and England and Wales Cricket Board had been in negotiations over compensation for Farbrace’s early release. He was contracted to December 2015.

During his short stint, Farbrace coached Sri Lanka to World Twenty20 and Asia Cup championships and the team lost just one match in 18 outings.

However, he left for England immediately after the World Twenty20 victory over India, and Sri Lankan officials expressed surprise on being told by the ECB that it was interested in recruiting Farbrace as one of their coaches and sought his early release.

Peter Moores was unveiled as the new England coach on Saturday, and Farbrace will be his assistant in all three formats.

Their first assignment will be against Sri Lanka, which begins a 14-match tour of England and Ireland in less than two weeks.

Farbrace, an Englishman, kept wicket for Kent and Middelesex before taking to coaching. He was Sri Lanka’s assistant coach for three years, and was wounded by shrapnel when the national team was attacked by terrorists in Pakistan in 2009.