President of Sri Lanka Cricket Mohan de Silva says the doors for Sri Lanka cricketers to figure in the English County System from 2005 will be opened as a result of fruitful discussions he had with a few top officials of some leading counties recently.

De Silva, who was in England in his capacity as President SLC during the concluded 12 team ICC Champions trophy tournament, told ‘The Island’ three top rung English counties have shown a favourable response to give opportunities to local players to feature in League cricket.

"I held talks with three counties, (Hampshire, Surrey and Nottinghamshire) and they promised to look into it favourably," said de Silva.

He said Managing Director of Hampshire Nick Pike, Chairman of Surrey, Derrick Newton and Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire David Collier were involved in discussions with a view to opening new horizons for Sri Lanka cricketers.

World’s leading Test wicket taker Muttiah Muralitharan (Lancashire) and left armer Chaminda Vaas (Hampshire) are the only two players in the present team with English county experience.

The champion off spinner has renewed his contract with Lancashire while the local cricket chief was of the opinion the seasoned left arm speedster could receive another call up from Hampshire for the 2005 season depending on the international schedule for Sri Lanka.

De Silva said one of the main reasons behind the sporadic opportunities which had come Sri Lanka’s way in the past had been "because those who had played earlier for the counties had not endeavoured to put in a word to people who matter on behalf of their colleagues".

He also noted past officials of the then BCCSL had also not taken the issue of widening the scope of local players representing English counties seriously, but was optimistic the anomaly could be rectified in future.

The President of Sri Lanka Cricket further explained that Sarath Abeysundere Chairman of UK Committee of SLC, and another prominent cricket promoter in England, Glucka Wijesuriya, who owns a ground in Shenley, had assured him to look into the possibility of giving exposure to youngsters in the national team.