by Rex Clementine  

The Cabinet sub committee appointed to look into affairs of Sri Lanka Cricket and submit recommendations in a report has called for the complete overhaul of the governing body. The committee headed by Foreign Minister Ali Sabry comprised Tiran Alles, Kanchana Wijesekara and Manusha Nanayakkara gives thumbs up to constitutional reforms going along with the Chithrasiri Committee report. Retired Supreme Court judge K.T. Chithrasiri had presented a comprehensive new constitution to govern cricket.

The Cabinet Sub Committee in its report says, ‘we agree with several observations made by individuals who appeared before our committee, and it has come to our attention that many members of the SLC administration have made their employment at SLC their primary source of income. Consequently, they have utilized all available resources at their disposal to prolong their tenure at SLC.”

“The existing constitutional composition and structure of SLC must be reformed to ensure efficiency, transparency and good governance and that funds are used for development of cricket rather than for self-interest or favour.”

The report criticizes SLC’s controversial voting system. It points out that while cricket’s most successful team’s board; Australia has just six votes while the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the richest cricket board in the world, has just 38 votes while Sri Lanka has a staggering 147 votes.

“We believe that the current constitutional structure of allowing clubs which controlled 147 votes, which are supported by SLC, to decide the Executive Committee should be discouraged and that a new constitution in accordance with international standards should be introduced.”

The report notes that any change introduced for cricket’s governance will be fiercely contested by SLC’s Executive Committee.

“Any constitutional amendment that changes the status quo may be near impossible to implement as the process must be approved by the same stakeholders and present members. It has also been observed that any attempt to amend the constitution and the sport regulation has been consistently met with severe resistance from the incumbent office bearers and therefore has not yielded the desired results.

Indian cricket was faced with a similar situation to Sri Lanka with businessmen having a stronghold on the sport’s governance, but court’s intervention saw term limits being introduced and big boys of Indian cricket were sent packing.

“In order to discourage interested parties from perpetuating their stronghold on cricket administration, we recommend limits on holding key positions such as President, Secretary and Treasurer to a maximum of two years terms and any position in the Executive Committee to a maximum aggregate length of eight years,” the report says.

The report goes onto recommend that if the SLC Executive Committee resists change, an Interim Committee to be appointed to usher in change. “We further recommend a clear timeframe be established for the introduction of the new law and hold elections in compliance with such laws. In the event the current SLC administration is unwilling or unable to cooperate with the proposals we recommend that an interim committee be established with clear timelines and targets to implement the process and reconstruct the SLC in accordance with the newly adopted legislation.”

Sri Lanka Cricket is currently suspended and the members of the Executive Committee of SLC have gone onto point out that the board will continue to face trouble with the ICC if they aren’t allowed to have a free run. However, the Cabinet Sub Committee report disputes these claims.

“ICC is of the opinion that cricket must be administered by SLC with minimum interference. However, the ICC is not opposed to the implementation of local laws. The ICC will not and can not be expected to be a hindrance to ensuring proper administration of local laws to prevent mismanagement and corruption.

The report then goes onto quote an ICC regulation. ‘A government would not be prevented from investigating the affairs of a Member Board in order to ascertain whether any criminal offence has been committed including fraud,’ the ICC clause says.

Presenting their points to the Cabinet Sub Committee, Sri Lanka Institute of Chartered Accountants had observed that cricket administration for some had become a livelihood.

The Auditor General, meanwhile, had some interesting remarks to make to the Cabinet Sub Committee, “The ExCo had increased their per diem from around US$ 500 to US$ 700 recently whereas the Government of Sri Lanka had reduced the per diem of public servants due to the shortage of foreign currency.”

“In the Auditor General’s view, this incident exemplified corrupt practice where Ex Co members who were entrusted with the authority of SLC had utilized that authority for personal gain.”