Sri Lanka Cricket makes last ditch effort to thwart ministerial ouster-BY CALLISTUS DAVY

Source:Sundayobserver

With an impending court verdict that will define the direction of the country’s administration of cricket into the future amid calls for a complete riddance of corruption and power abuse, an attempt has been made to thwart the installation of an Interim Committee to run the sport’s affairs just as the Sri Lanka team crashed to a fourth series defeat inside three months on Saturday.

The move comes just days after one entity with a vote Colts Cricket Club, petitioned Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa, who is facing his biggest challenge for change, to set up the stop gap management citing the current term of Sri Lanka Cricket’s office bearers had no legal right to continue since its term expired in February 2021.

A controversial vote to elect office bearers to run the affairs of one of the island’s richest and most financially rocked profit making public institutions is scheduled to take place on May 20.

Claiming that they were elected in February 2019 for the two-year term but entered office only on June 1, 2019 as a government Competent Authority stood in the way, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has appealed in a letter to Minister Rajapaksa to avoid falling into a trap by appointing an Interim Committee.

“We urge you not to be swayed by any malicious attempts to appoint an Interim Committee as we have commenced the election process by duly appointing the Election Committee,” SLC president Shammi Silva has conveyed to Minister Rajapaksa in a letter.

But there are also records to show that SLC had conducted two official meetings, one for its management committee and another for its executive committee in March 2019 which runs contrary to their claim that they entered office only in June 2019.

The administration of cricket is under public scrutiny like never before with a Parliamentary probe committee currently investigating financial misdeeds and missing bank accounts.

A court Petition submitted by 12 of the country’s super elite followers calling for a new Constitution at SLC that will also abolish an exploitable voting system that does not promote credibility has also added to public curiosity.

The governance of cricket in Sri Lanka has come under as many as eight government-installed Interim Committees over the past 20 years as and when allegations of financial misdeeds had taken place.