Harin, Silva on collision course?

Barely a few hours after Sri Lanka Cricket’s election results had been released and already fault lines were beginning to show in the relationship between Sports Minister Harin Fernando and the newly elected

Sports Minister Harin Fernando

administration. 

Among his first declarations as President, Shammi Silva didn’t mince his words in shooting down a proposal to restructure Sri Lanka’s domestic cricket system. The proposal, which had been put forward by former cricketers Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, among others, had once before been put on the backburner by the previous Sumathipala-headed administration, and Silva indicated he would likely follow suit.

“True they have played top level of cricket, but they have to come and see our structure. You can’t say Australian structure is best, Indian structure is best, because our country is unique,” stated the new SLC President. 

“We have won how many times with this system? We have won two World Cups because of this system, we have come to three WC finals because of this system. You take other countries, except Australia and India, all the other countries haven’t done better than us. So our system is unique. More than a century-old system, suddenly they want to come and change it. This is the only country former cricketers are interfering with the cricket board.”

Despite these strong words, Silva eventually acceded that he and his team would be willing to have a “brainstorming session” to discuss the idea.

Such concessions would likely be music to the ears of Minister Fernando, who had earlier spoke glowingly of the same report.

“What we have right now are cricket clubs with more of a focus on Colombo. This new concept takes it to six regions, and these regions will become stronger, and even the existing clubs will be broken into those areas. Players should be moving there and playing cricket, not just playing cricket in Colombo. I think it’s a good concept, I like the idea,” said an optimistic Fernando.

That said, the Sports Minister was well aware of potential points of contention with the new cricket board, but urged all parties to move forward in unison.

“My ideas and their ideas should match, and I hope we will have a good working order. Because if I do try to be a dictator, it’s not going to be very good for the cricket. I hope that they won’t act like dictators either, and hope that we will have a mutual understanding for the best interests of cricket.” (MB)

Shammi elected new SLC President