by Rex Clementine  

Following the unceremonious axing of Roshan Ranasinghe as Sports Minister, you expected a few celebrations at Maitland Place. However, the celebrations have been muted. While most Sports Ministers had played ball with SLC, Ranasinghe had turned out to be the cricket establishment’s bete noire.

Harin Ferando had a brief spell as Sports Minister from 2018 to 2019 and he had endorsed the current establishment during his previous stint. However, he has taken over the Sports Ministry at a time when public opinion is dead against the incumbent Executive Committee and he’s said to be treading extra cautiously.

When Minister Ranasinghe’s days were numbered after his outbursts in the Parliament targeting the government hierarchy, several SLPP stalwarts were eyeing the portfolio of sports. Yet, President Ranil Wickremesinghe opted for a confidant of his in Fernando.

Apart from the annual visit to the Royal – Thomian, the President is not an avid follower of the game like some of his other illustrious UNP leaders like J.R. Jayawardene, Gamini Dissanayake (both former SLC Presidents) and Lalith Athulathmudali (a former President of NCC). However, the President had shown a keen interest in cricket in recent years.

This year, Wickremesinghe had already made budget allocations for developing cricket infrastructure in rural areas. His thinking seems to be that the far-off villages too need to be equipped with decent cricket facilities and earlier this week had met some former cricketers to identify regions that need these facilities.

During these meetings, the President seemed to have given an assurance that the cricket issue would be seriously looked at. He seems to be unhappy that the SLC Ex-Co requested the ICC for the suspension of the board.

So, at the moment the priority seems to be to lift the ICC ban. Once the ban is lifted the other course of action will be mooted.

Interestingly, the court is expected to give a verdict on the appointment of the Interim Committee by the former Minister of Sports. SLC had taken a stay order from the court preventing the Interim Committee from functioning. The next move depends on the verdict to be given on Tuesday.

In the meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, a respected President’s Counsel and someone who is known as a straight shooter, has been interviewing stakeholders of the sport to find solutions out of the crisis facing cricket.

Retired Supreme Court Judge K.T. Chithrasiri had presented a comprehensive new constitution for Sri Lanka Cricket after a court ruling that gave the green light for amending the constitution having noted that too many paper clubs had voting stakes at the AGM.

It appears that the Executive Committee will be allowed to see the suspension  off and will probably be allowed to see through their term which ends next year. Then, the new constitution will be tabled at Parliament along with the amendments to the Sports Law and it should be smooth sailing from thereon.

One of the saliant features in the new constitution is that the number of voting clubs will be considerably reduced and a Board of Governors, comprising professionals will run the show.

However, if the court says that the appointment of the Interim Committee by Roshan Ranasinghe is legal, then the Ex-Co is automatically removed, and the Interim Committee will function until the new Constitution takes effect.

President Wickremesinghe had faced much criticism for removing Roshan Ranasinghe from his post. The Polonnaruwa District MP had taken the cricket administration on fearlessly exposing mass scale corruption. The Audit Report too doesn’t paint the cricket bosses in good picture and the President is compelled to take action, but the ICC suspension might make him go easy.

Under the Yahapalana government too, Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister had authorized changes to SLC governance and late Supreme Court judge Prasanna Jayawardene had prepared a new constitution.

However, on that instance, individuals closer to Maithripala Sirisena had requested the former President to take the Sports Ministry under SLFP and the new constitution that had been mooted died a natural death as the Sports Ministry changed hands from Naveen Dissanayake to Dayasiri Jayasekara.

The national cricket team has hit new lows in the last five years and Sri Lanka have been knocked out from the Champions Trophy. This is the first time the nation will not feature in an ICC event. Unless authorities take note and effect change, there is little doubt that Sri Lankan cricket is heading the same direction as West Indies.