Cricket chiefs rope in Romesh De Silva for Hathurusingha vs SLC

By Rex Clementine

He may be making court appearances for the Catholic Church free of charge, but eminent lawyer Romesh De Silva is turning out to be the costliest legal counsel in the island. Sri Lanka Cricket is faced with an expensive legal battle with their ex-coach Chandika Hathurusingha and SLC is not taking any chances with the case having hired country’s leading lawyer – Romesh De Silva.

Hathurusingha has sued SLC for US$ five million for wrongful termination of employment and in order to avoid a financial debacle the board desperately needs to win the case.

SLC hierarchy is aware of the fact that De Silva will cost them an arm and a leg but what they have is Hobson’s choice. The case is still in early stages and for written submissions for the questions posed by the Arbitrators, the board will pay a sum of Rs. 1.5 million to De Silva. The President’s Counsel is only the Lead Counsel in the case and there are other lawyers involved as well and for all of them the board will incur an initial payment of Rs. 3.5 million.

This may turn out to be the most expensive court case involving SLC. There have been other high profile cases like Geoff March versus SLC in 2012 and WSG Nimbus versus SLC in 2001. The board lost both cases but defeat this time around will make them to feel the pinch as numbers are quite staggering.

From the outset it was argued that terminating Hathurusingha’s services could bring the board trouble. Hathurusingha resumed his three year stint with SLC in 2018 January and when he was sacked, he had only one year remaining in the contract. Even if the board had to pay him for the rest of his contract, it would have cost SLC somewhere around US$ 600,000. However, now they have been sued for US$ five million plus the costly legal charges.

Hathurusingha a former Test cricketer took up coaching after retirement. Following initial success with Moors SC, he migrated to UAE and was brought back to Colombo in 2007 to take up as coach of Sri Lanka ‘A’. Two years later, on the insistence of then Test captain Kumar Sangakkara, Haturusingha was part of the national team’s coaching staff as understudy to Trevor Bayliss.

It was expected that he will succeed Bayliss but disagreement with the board saw him being removed from the post. He then migrated to Australia and worked with New South Wales before Bangladesh hired him as Head Coach. Bangladesh cricket improved steadily under his charge and in 2017 he decided to end his association early to take up the Sri Lankan role.

One of Hathurusingha’s demands before taking up the Sri Lankan role was that he needed to be part of the selection panel. He was stripped of selection duties in December 2018. More than SLC, then Sports Minister Harin Fernando seemed to be keen on removing the coach and Fernando may have cost SLC a fortune. Hathurusingha has good ground to argue as his contract was with SLC and not with Sports Ministry.

The highest point of Hathurusinha’s stint with Sri Lanka was the national cricket team’s 2-0 series win in South Africa. Sri Lanka became the first Asian nation to win a Test series in South Africa.