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SJB Parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne
Main Opposition SJB Parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne yesterday called for a new Constitution to clean the Sri Lanka Cricket.
“The problem with Sri Lankan Cricket is too much political interference and the ministers of sports being involved, coaches have been asked to step down by politicians. So we have a governance issue and what we need to correct is, to bring a new constitution for Sri Lanka cricket to depoliticise and clean the cricket,” Wickramaratne told Parliament during the adjournment debate on Sri Lanka Cricket.
SJB Parliamentarian Hesha Withana had moved a resolution on the alleged irregularities in Sri Lanka Cricket institute involving T-20 international competition held in Australia in 2022.
Wickramaratne said that a new constitution is needed for cricket because 140 odd clubs are making the decisions. But most of the countries in the world have 6-14 clubs that are actually making the decision. A new Constitution previously drafted by a team led by a prominent lawyer has been given to the minister.
“Sri Lanka Cricket is not a private organisation as claimed by certain officials of the cricket board. It is a national organisation. We need to go by the ICC guiding principles of good consciousness, equity, common sense and simplicity enabling every member to grow with greater transparency. Those who are in cricket say oh.. the government mustn’t interfere, they are not accountable to anybody because this is a private organisation. It is not private in that sense,” he said
Wickramaratne quoted French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau who said that he drew a distinction between the “majority vote" and the majority will “There are things that can be done by vote. Majority will is not always equal to majority vote
Therefore, he said that Sri Lanka Cricket is owned by Sri Lankans. That is why people’s representatives in Parliament are making questions about cricket, it is not owned by few individuals or few associations, majority vote is one thing majority will is one other thing.
Focusing on the need to put the cricket mess in the right direction, the SJB MP said ICC basically in 2016, bundled all their rights consisting of 4- T 20s, two 50-over world cups and other matches and commenced negotiations on amounts for selling their rights. That amount is what is distributed among the countries. Sri Lanka for the last eight years up to 2023, was originally to get $80 million but renegotiated it for $132 million. Thilanga Sumathipala was the President of the Cricket Board at that time and he managed to cleverly renegotiate with ICC to have our shares increased. As a result Sri Lanka gets a fair share annually.
“Since lot of money is involved with cricket there is political interference. Today I heard a former sports minister saying we must not have political interference in sports. If that is the case should politicians hold positions in sports associations. If you really want to stop political interference, let the professionals handle it, leaving behind the politicians involved in sports associations, “ Wickramaratne said.
He made a reference to a special directive given by Harin Fernando who was the then sports minister in July 2019. Harin asked all cricket coaches of the national team to step down soon after the Bangladesh ODI. Wickramaratne emphasised that politicians should not be involved in removing national coaches. This is the kind of politicization taking place in Sri Lankan Cricket.
Wickramaratne also quoted one time coach Asanka Gurusinghe as saying there was an overwhelming political interference which hindered the development of cricket. He has worked under three different sports ministers and due to disappointment he has left his stint with Sri Lanka cricket as a coach. In the same manner another outstanding cricketer Hathurusinghe, who was taken as a coach has also made similar sentiments.
