Sri Lanka Cricket back to ‘Interim Committee’ mode

Tuesday, 31 March 2015 03:41 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Minister of Sports Navin Dissanayake on Monday appointed an interim committee to run Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The nine-member committee headed by former opening batsman, Sidath Wettimuny, comprises of two more former international players, Jayananda Warnaweera and Kapila Wijegunawardena. Wettimuny was one-time Chairman of Selectors and a member of two previous interim committees. Prakash Schaffter, Lucille Wijewardena, Kushil Gunasekera, Nuski Mohamed, Prasanna Jayawardena and Duminda Hulangamuva are the other members.

The government gazette issued under Dissanayake's hand says the "appointments of all office bearers as at today are canceled and the interim committee from April 1 will carry out the functions of Sri Lanka Cricket until an election is held or until further notice". SLC has a history of being run by politically-appointed interim committees. From 2005 to 2012 different interim committees ran the administration until the ICC issued an ultimatum that made independently appointed administrations mandatory. SLC is currently in poor financial footing. Prime Minister Ranil Wicktenesinghe on Monday said it owed state construction agency millions of rupees of unpaid dues. "There are corruption allegations on the cricket administration. So we need to clean the system before the elections can be held," Wickremesinghe told a public gathering yesterday. "The SLC owes Rs. 500 million to the State Engineering Corporation, so Parliament has the responsibility to go into all these transactions," Wickremesinghe said. The dissolution of SLC and the appointment of Interim Committee comes ahead of the SLC Annual General Meeting to elect office bearers which was to be held on April 30 and the nominations for positions were to be accepted from yesterday. A probable hotly contested election was awaited between powerful factions headed by incumbent President Jayantha Dharmadasa, the incumbent Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga and Thilanga Sumathipala, a current Parliamentarian and twice-elected former President of SLC.