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COPE instructs that legal action should be taken against SLC’s top brass

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by Saman Indrajith

Parliamentary watchdog committee –COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) has issued instructions to the Secretary to the Ministry of Sports Anuradha Wijekoon to take legal action against the former members of the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Executive Committee and its CEO Ashley de Silva, parliament sources said yesterday.

COPE Chairman Prof Charitha Herath instructed Sports Ministry Secretary Wijekoon to obtain the assistance of Attorney General Dappula De Livera to institute legal action against the former SLC exco members.

The instructions had been issued following a COPE investigation on SLC held at the Parliamentary complex on Tuesday.

The COPE probe was for the purpose of examining the Auditor General’s report for the financial years 2017 and 2018 of SLC and its current performance.

Ministers Mahinda Amaraweera, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, State Minister D.V Chanaka, MPs Patali Champika Ranawaka, Eran Wickramaratne, S.M Marikkar, Nalin Bandara, Premanath C. Dolawatta and S. Rasamanikkam were present at the inquiry.

The probe found that that 123 out of the 162 approved cadres of Sri Lanka Cricket were on contract, which was a matter of serious concern. The Committee also pointed out that the posts of Head of Finance, Legal Officer, Information Technology Officer and Internal Auditor should be permanent positions.

COPE recommended that the procurement process of Sri Lanka Cricket be streamlined and that a proper system be introduced.

COPE was of the view that the intervention of the Director General of Sports should be at a higher level than at present.

It also recommended that Sri Lanka Cricket should develop a proper format for disbursing funds to sports associations.

COPE directed the Ministry of Sports and Sri Lanka Cricket to see that the Sports Act is amended expeditiously.

COPE chairman Prof. Charitha Herath pointed out that the reason for the massive collapse of cricket in the country was not the fault of the players but the weaknesses of the cricket administration.

When COPE questioned the non-recovery of Rs. 29 million in revenue due for sponsorship of the South Africa-Sri Lanka Cricket tour in 2018, the Chief Executive Officer of SLC Ashley de Silva informed the committee that the CID had commenced an investigation into the matter. It was revealed at that the money had been deposited in a bank account in the USA named ‘Diamond Channel’ and that the investigations were focused on how it happened.

Prof. Herath instructed the Secretary to the Ministry of Sports Anuradha Wijekoon to conduct an inquiry in this regard and submit the report to the Committee within three months.

It was also revealed at the meeting that Rs. 30 million had been spent to institute legal action against former head coach of Sri Lanka Cricket Chandika Hathurusinghe pertaining to the shortcomings of his agreement .

Attention was drawn to the fact that Rs. 132 million had been spent for the construction of a National Cricket Stadium and a Multi-Sports Complex in the Hingurakgoda area in Polonnaruwa, but that a title deed had not been obtained for the relevant land as yet. COPE directed the Ministry of Sports to take immediate action to resolve the issue.

COPE also paid special attention to the continuation of construction advances of Rs. 7,764,050 given to the Cricket Associations in the years 2007, 2008, 2016 and 2017 and match advances of Rs.10,292,337 paid from 2015 to 2019 without settlement.

COPE was of the view that a number of such issues have arisen in SLC due to the non-implementation of the Procurement Guidelines and that the institution should operate within an accepted framework.

Officials from the Ministry of Sports as well as officials from Sri Lanka Cricket were present at the meeting. Several former officials of the SLC Executive Committee were present at the Parliament premises to attend the meeting but were not allowed to attend due to the expiration of their tenure on the previous day.



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Rajapaksa, Arshdeep deliver winning start for PBKS

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Bhanuka Rajapaksa hit fifty off 32 balls. (pic BCCI)

A power-packed, collective performance with the bat set the platform for Punjab Kings’ winning start as they downed Kolkata Knight Riders by seven runs (DLS method) at the PCA stadium in Mohali on Saturday (April 1). Bhanuka Rajapaksa (50 off 32) registered his maiden IPL fifty while Shikhar Dhawan struck a 29-ball 40, and along with useful contributions from the rest of the batters, PBKS posted a formidable 191/5. Andre Russell top-scored for KKR but they lost wickets at regular intervals and eventually fell short of the DLS par score as they finished with 146/7 in 16 overs when rain forced the players off the field.

Brief scores:

Punjab Kings 191/5 in 20 overs (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 50, Shikhar Dhawan 40; Tim Southee 2-54) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 146/7 in 16 overs (Andre Russell 35; Venkatesh Iyer 34; Arshdeep Singh 3-19) by 7 runs (DLS method).

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Ruturaj 92 in vain as Titans win opening game

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Shubman Gill set the platform for a terrific run-chase in the season opener

A brilliant 92 from Ruturaj Gaikwad went in vain as defending champions Gujarat Titans beat Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad on Friday (March 31) in the tournament opener. Gaikwad’s innings was nullified to an extent initially by Shubman Gill before a few vital blows towards the end of the game from the Titans middle order got the job done for them with four balls to spare.

Brief scores:

Chennai Super Kings 178/7 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 92; Rashid Khan 2/26, Mohammed Shami 2/29) lost to Gujarat Titans182/5 in 19.2 overs (Shubman Gill 63; Rajvardhan Hangargekar 3/36) by 5 wickets

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Bowlers, Stirling lead Ireland to their first win in Bangladesh in any format

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Paul Stirling was as free-flowing as ever as he guided Ireland’s chase

Ireland finally notched a win on their tour of Bangladesh by scoring a seven-wicket win in the final T20I in Chattogram on Friday. Mark Adair led the bowling charge with three wickets as Bangladesh were bowled out for 124, and Paul Stirling, later named Player of the Match, was at his inventive best as he struck a 41-ball 77 to headline the chase. It was Ireland’s first T20I win over Bangladesh since 2009 and their first win in any format in the country.

Bangladesh had already taken the series after winning the first two games earlier in the week, and made two changes, perhaps to try out alternatives. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman went out; Rishad Hossain was handed a debut and Shoriful Islam made a comeback. It was the batting that came unstuck, though.

After opting to bat, Bangladesh were 61 for 7 in nine-and-a-half overs. Shamim Hossain, however, scored his first international half-century, making 51 off 42 balls with five fours and two sixes to give them a competitive 124. One of those sixes was a particularly eye-catching shot, when he reverse-whipped Curtis Campher hit over backward point for six.

But with Stirling in blistering form, and playing a few inventive shots of his own, the chase was done and dusted in 14 overs.Bangladesh’s slide started in the second over. Litton Das’ slash towards deep point against a wide Adair delivery landed in George Dockrell’s lap. It was the first time Bangladesh had lost a wicket in the powerplay after three matches.

Najmul Hossain Shanto was next to go, hitting a slog-sweep off Harry Tector straight to deep midwicket. Campher juggled the catch but clung on. In the next over, Campher himself got a wicket, when Rony Talukdar holed out at deep midwicket.

Towhid Hridoy and Shakib Al Hasan, however, went for their shots in keeping with Bangladesh’s new approach, and hit a couple of big ones, but both were gone in the space of three balls. Shakib was caught at short midwicket mistiming a pull off Adair, while Hridoy holed out off Ben White in the seventh over

Matthew Humphreys had two wicketless ODIs in Sylhet, but the left-arm spinner had a better start to his T20I career. He took a wicket off his first ball when he yorked Rishad for 8.

That made him the first Ireland bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in T20Is. This was, however, not the first time a debutant had done this against Bangladesh. Previously, Rory Kleinveldt, Pragyan Ojha, Lockie Ferguson and Cole McConchie have all achieved the feat.

Humphreys added his second off his third ball, when Taskin Ahmed was caught at deep midwicket for a duck.Shamim and Nasum Ahmed added 33 runs for the eighth wicket before Nasum was caught in the covers off Gareth Delany’s legspin. Adair took his third when he removed Shoriful, before Fionn Hand took Shamim’s wicket in the final over.

Stirling didn’t get going at the start, as there were two early wickets, of Ross Adair and Lorcan Tucker, but once he was set, there was no stopping him. He cut and swept Shakib for fours to kickstart the chase, and then deposited Hasan Mahmud’s half-tracker for his first six next over. No bowler escaped his wrath, or his inventiveness, as he hit ten fours and four sixes in his 41-ball innings.

Many of those came in one Shoriful over, the 11th of the innings, when he pulled a six and hit three fours to take 20 runs. Rishad put an end to the mayhem when he had Stirling caught at long-on in the 13th over – it was Stirling’s 22nd half-century in T20Is and Rishad’s first international wicket – but Campher closed out the chase with a four and a six off Taskin.

Brief scores:

Ireland 126 for 3 (Stirling 77, Campher 16*, Tector 14*, Rishad 1-19) beat Bangladesh 124 (Shamim 51, Adair 3-25, Humphreys 2-10) by seven wickets

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