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Sri Lanka Cricket suspended by ICC board
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been suspended by the ICC with immediate effect because of extensive government interference in the board’s administration.
Though the ICC has termed the sanction a “suspension”, in reality it is a warning as the ICC seeks to prevent further government interference in the running of SLC. As it stands, the suspension will not have any immediate serious impact on Sri Lankan cricket. Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign ended on Thursday and there is no cricket happening in the country until December. No ICC funds are due to go to SLC until January.
While the ICC’s quarterly meetings are scheduled for November 18-21 in Ahmedabad, the ICC board met online on Friday to address the SLC situation – government interference in all spheres from administration to finance and even matters concerning the national team. The next course of action will be decided when the ICC board meets on November 21.
The ICC’s decision might appear to have come out of the blue, but SLC may not have been surprised. It is understood that SLC asked the ICC board to take this extreme step. The ICC also continues to recognise SLC president Shammi Silva, who is currently in India and attended Friday’s meeting, as the elected representative. He is also likely to be present at the ICC meetings in Ahmedabad as the ICC Board has allowed SLC representatives to be present in an observer capacity.
“The ICC Board met today and determined that Sri Lanka Cricket is in serious breach of its obligations as a Member, in particular, the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration of cricket in Sri Lanka,” the ICC said in a statement. “The conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC Board in due course.”
On Monday, Sri Lanka’s sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe had sacked the SLC board and installed an interim committee headed by Arjuna Ranathunga, but Sri Lanka’s courts essentially reinstated the board a day later by issuing a 14-day stay order on the gazette that dissolved the board.
Since then, the affairs of Sri Lanka Cricket have been debated at length in the country’s parliament. But as of Friday, when the ICC suspension came, it was the elected SLC board headed by Silva that was running cricket in the country.
Even if the interim committee was in power, the appointment of such committees by the government had not prompted suspension by the ICC before. The previous occasion when an interim committee was in place, from 2014 to 2015, resulted in the ICC putting the funds due to SLC in escrow, and demoted SLC to observer status at board meetings. But they remained a member of the ICC officially.
Sri Lanka’s sports minister has also had the role of ratifying all Sri Lankan national teams, as per the nation’s sports law, which has been in place since 1973.
SLC chief executive Ashley de Silva refused to comment to the subject.
SLC is the second Full Member to be suspended by ICC in the last four years afte Zimbzbwe Cricket was suspended in 2019 for government interference. However, unlike in Zimbabwe’s case, where all cricket activities in the country were abruptly shut down, in addition to a freeze on funding, the ICC will tread carefully in Sri Lanka’s case.
(Cricinfo)
February is usually a wonderful time in Delhi, when winter starts giving way to spring, but people are already complaining of a missed spring with temperatures hitting the late 20s as early as the second week of February. Even amid the climate change of the last decade or so, there has been one pattern: a late hailstorm typically brings back another week of chilly weather. An Indian Winter, if you will, Delhi’s response to Indian Summer, which is the term the English give to a late spell of hot weather when it should be autumn.
The fans, who will sell out the Feroz Shah Kotla even with schools turning down offers for free tickets for students to non-India matches because of looming board exams, will hope for a similar storm of sixes after a dry run in India’s tournament-opener. The anticipation for 300 in the Indian media has come in for some mockery, with the pitches not turning out as flat as they are in bilaterals, but at a venue with small boundaries that has turned high-scoring in recent IPL seasons, India will hope to get back to big-scoring ways after navigating a banana peel against USA on a gripping Wankhede surface.
Against them are Namibia who managed just 156 in Delhi against Netherlands and lost quite comfortably. They might still sense a chance as India struggle with fitness and health issues around Jasprit Bumrah, Abhishek Sharama and Washington Sundar, and will themselves be gunning to go big with the bat in a World Cup. What an opportunity for Namibia to make a name for themselves by stretching the strongest-ever contenders for a T20 World Cup.
When India were struggling against USA in the unfamiliar conditions laid out by Mumbai, it was Suryakumar Yadav’s blinder that gave them a match-winning score. That wretched year of 2025, during which he didn’t score a single fifty, seems well and truly behind him now. Suryakumar now has more match awards for India than anyone, having gone past Virat Kohli’s 16.
Namibia, another Associate side that like to open the bowling with a spinner, will hope Bernard Scholtz can repeat what he did against Netherlands. In defence of a paltry 156, the left-arm spinner took out opener Max O’Dowd and conceded just 27 in his four overs.
Washington has joined the Indian squad, but they have other health troubles in the side. Bumrah missed their first match with illness, and while he seems to have recovered and bowled full-tilt at the nets on Tueday, Abhishek has been struggling with a stomach issue. He reportedly played in Mumbai with fever, and it turned worse by the time the team reached Delhi, where he was hospitalised. Tilak Varma said on Wednesday that he has been discharged, but India will take a call on his availability on the day of the match. India might want to take their time with the big names, and in the process give some game time to the reserves.
India (probable): Abhishek Sharma/Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah/ Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakravarthy.
Seventeen-year-old fast bowler Max Heingo bowled only two overs and went for 22 against Netherlands. Namibia could replace him with the more experienced Ben Shikongo.
Namibia (possible): Louren Steenkamp, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (capt), JJ Smit, Zane Green (wk), Dylan Leicher, Willem Myburgh, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo.
[Cricinfo]
The US House of Representatives has voted to rescind US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods.
In a 219 to 211 vote, six Republican lawmakers joined Democrats to back a resolution that seeks to end the tariffs Trump imposed on Canada last year.
The vote is largely symbolic as it will still need to be approved by the US Senate and then approved by Trump, who is very unlikely to sign it into law.
Since his re-election, Donald Trump has imposed a series of tariffs on Canada, recently threatening a 100% import tax in response to Canada’s proposed trade deal with China.
As the vote was taking place on the House floor, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time.”
“TARIFFS have given us Economic and National Security, and no Republican should be responsible for destroying this privilege,” he added.
The vote came after US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump ally in Congress, unsuccessfully tried to block discussion on the chamber’s floor by lawmakers on Trump’s tariffs.
With Republicans holding a thin majority in the US House, the six Republican defections along with a near-united front from Democrats was enough to secure the votes.
The measure had been introduced by Democrat Gregory Meeks who said that Trump had “weaponized tariffs” against allies and destabilized the global economy.
“Not only have these tariffs done immense harm to our relationship with Canada, pushing them closer to China, they have driven up prices here at home,” he said before the vote.
Representative Don Bacon from Nebraska was one of the six Republicans who crossed the aisle to join Democrats in approving the measure. Before the vote, he said “tariffs have been a ‘net negative’ for the economy and are a significant tax that American consumers, manufacturers, and farmers are paying.”
The bill now heads to the US Senate where Republicans also hold the majority. Even if it cleared that hurdle, it is unlikely to be signed into law.
Separately, Trump’s tariffs are also facing legal scrutiny as the US Supreme Court is set to rule soon on a case questioning the president’s legal authority to impose the levies.
Meeks, the top Democrat on the US House Foreign Affairs committee, said the measure on Canada is the first of several bills he plans to introduce that aim to roll back Trump’s signature trade action.
“Our fight doesn’t stop here,” he said in a video posted online before the vote. “I have resolutions also to end trump’s tariffs on Mexico, on Brazil, and on his Liberation Day global tariffs.”
[BBC]
Nepal enter the contest against Italy, a team they have never faced before, on the back of falling short by just one big blow against England on Sunday. Nepal will look to bring that same brand of cricket in Mumbai again and will believe they hold the edge and momentum against their fellow Associates, who are playing their first big tournament.
Emerging from the shadows of the globetrotting legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane are batters Dipendra Singh Airee and Lokesh Bam, who all but took their side over the line in front of loud and energetic fans. But with the ball, Nepal conceded 33 runs in the last two overs of the first innings in that game, and that turned out to be the difference.
However, two points – and a possible big margin of victory – against Italy will open Nepal’s group up before they face West Indies; Nepal had betaen West Indies 2-1 last September.
Italy, meanwhile, had a tough initiation at the T20 World Cup with a 73-run defeat against Scotland. They also lost their captain Wayne Madsen to injury inside four overs of their T20 World Cup debut. He will not feature against Nepal either.
Italy coach John Davison said after the loss that the “occasion may have got big on us”. With nothing to lose and experience to gain, Italy have another chance to have fun and potentially upset some calculations, before facing stronger oppositions England and West Indies.
Batting at No. 5, Ben Maneti was one of the positives for Italy in their loss to Scotland. He started with only seven runs off seven balls, but went on to smash 52 in 31. The majority of his runs came against spinners (45 runs in 25 balls) with shots all around: behind square, through cover, and over the bowler’s head. Italy will hope Ben Manenti carries that confidence against Lamichhane and co.
Lokesh Bam threw everything he had at England when they needed 54 in 21 balls, but fell agonisingly short. Facing quality and experienced bowlers, he smacked back-to-back fours off Sam Curran and successive sixes off Jofra Archer as England searched for answers. Bam’s 39 not out was not enough on the day, but he gave solid proof of his big-hitting ability, something the format demands.
Madsen has been ruled out against Nepal, and in his absence, Harry Manenti, the younger of the two brothers, will be leading Italy. Middle-order batter Marcus Campopiano could replace Madsen in the side.
Italy (probable): Anthony Mosca, Justin Mosca, JJ Smuts, Marcus Campopiano, Harry Manenti (capt), Ben Manenti, Grant Stewart, Gian-Piero Meade (wk), Thomas Draca, Crishan Kalugamage, Ali Hasan
Nepal might look to play the same team that ran England close at the same ground on Sunday.
Nepal (probable): Aasif Sheikh (wk), Kushal Bhurtel, Rohit Paudel (capt), Dipendra Airee, Aarif Sheikh, Lokesh Bam, Gulsan Jha, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane, Nandan Yadav, Sher Malla
[Cricinfo]
Namibia look to make a splash with India battling injury and illness
Powerful cyclone kills at least 31 as it tears through Madagascar port
US House votes to overturn Trump’s tariffs on Canada
Buoyed by strong support, Paudel’s Nepal search for two points against Italy
Bangladesh election 2026: Polls to open amid heavy security
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