By Saman Indrajith

Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa told Parliament yesterday that the collapse of cricket in Sri Lanka had commenced five years back and politicians had no right to get involved in cricket administration in the name of reviving the game.

Responding to a question raised by Matara District SJB MP Buddhika Pathirana, Minister Rajapaksa said that Sri Lanka Cricket was an independent body.

MP Pathirana wanted to know why a special committee had been appointed.

“The game started to collapse five years back. We have no right to interfere in the matters of Sri Lanka cricket. There is a need for amending the existing laws and the Sports Act. A committee of professionals has been appointed to assist the task of drafting the new Act. You should understand that cricket is one and administration of cricket is another. We have appointed a separate committee under the chairmanship of former cricketer Aravinda de Silva. The committee comprises other former players including Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan. It is expected to bring about proposals to improve the game. Reviving the game should start from the school level and we must look after good players from the age of 17 years. It may take at least five to six years to build a good international player. If we start now we may build a good player for the 2023 World Cup. We are against mixing politics with the game.”

Minister Rajapaksa said that in addition to cricket his ministry was focused on improving football in the country. “We plan to increase the number of those engaged in football. We think we can increase that number up to two million. The contribution of the government to the development of football is not enough. We have commenced a new project titled Football Friday. We have made short, medium and long term plans to improve soccer in this country. Currently Sri Lanka is ranked 206 in the list of soccer playing countries in the world. It is our intention to bring this up to 150th rank in the near future.”