Sports
Sri Lanka Cricket suspended by ICC: Causes and implications
There are more layers to the suspension of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) than are visible. On the surface, the International Cricket Council (ICC) decision, taken after an emergent board meeting, seems beneficial to the body it has suspended. Shammi Silva, the elected president of the SLC, is not exactly a persona non grata after the unexpected ICC decision. The ICC, in fact, said it still recognised him and his ‘democratically elected office-bearers’ and as a director.
More specifically, this move has been intended to prevent the government takeover of the SLC, which the country’s auditor general said is mired in corruption. To stretch the point further, only a couple of days ago, the country’s Parliament debated the SLC corruption issue and was preparing to have its own representative, namely Arjuna Ranatunga, run the body.
To elaborate, there has been an attempt to change the constitution of the SLC altogether, and Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe has been at the forefront of these plans. He appointed Ranatunga, a former and the only World Cup-winning captain in the island, as the chairman of the interim committee. The decision was stayed by a court of appeal, but only for two weeks. The stay order, passed on a Silva appeal, was set to be in effect until November 16.
Another dimension to the decision is the policies of the interim head. Ranatunga, considered to hold radical views on the game in Sri Lanka, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and the ICC, is not a popular figure in international cricket administration. Many ICC members would not be pleased with him being at the helm, least of all the BCCI, against whom he has often made scathing comments.
The ICC decision to suspend SLC followed a virtual meeting of the ICC board. It said the suspension is with immediate effect. “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 conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC Board in due course,” the ICC statement said.
Interestingly, the ICC decision comes a day after Sri Lanka’s participation in the ongoing World Cup formally ended. They were eliminated from the semifinal contention a week ago, but the decision was made after they played their last game of the Championship in Bengaluru on Thursday.
There may be a few serious implications of this decision. In January 2024, SLC is scheduled to host the Under-19 World Cup in the island nation. The fate of that tournament now hangs in the balance. A suspended board, obviously, cannot be expected to host a global event. Similarly, whether the ICC will stop releasing its funds for SLC is a matter of serious concern. There are no immediate international bilateral matches though.
The matter will now dominate the ICC board meeting, which will be held in Ahmedabad on November 21. For the record, SLC will not be a part of the board meeting, but Cricbuzz understands that Silva, having been the recognized person from Sri Lanka, will be able to sit in the meeting nevertheless, as an ICC mail, seen by Cricbuzz, states.
While the ICC decision culminates a series of events that have been taking place in SLC, it is not exactly consistent with its past policies. The ICC did not take action against Cricket South Africa (CSA) for a similar decision by the SA government. But it had suspended Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) a couple of times.
ICC mail to SLC
On Friday evening, ICC Chair Greg Barclay notified the SLC about its suspension. The notice, sent via email by Barclay, states:
Dear Shammi
In accordance with the powers under Article 2.10(A) of the ICC Articles of Association, the ICC Board of Directors, has determined that SLC cricket is in serious breach of its obligation as a member, in particular its obligations under Article 2.4(D) of the ICC Articles of Association (to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in its governance, regulation and/or its administration of cricket in Sri Lanka). As a consequence, Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership of the ICC has been suspended with immediate effect.
The ICC Board will consider the precise terms of Sri Lanka Cricket’s suspension and the conditions it will need to satisfy in order to have its suspension lifted in due course.
For the purpose of the upcoming Board meeting, the Board has agreed that it will continue to recognise the democratically elected office-bearers of Sri Lanka Cricket and thus you will be entitled to attend the meeting in your capacity as an ICC director.”
Punjab Kings’ (PBKS) playoff chances took a serious beating after they lost their fifth game in a row, this time going down to Mumbai Indians (MI) by six wickets in Dharamsala. They remain fourth on the table with 13 points from 12 games, while the two teams just below them, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, have 12 points each with a game in hand.
MI were without their regular captain Hardik Pandya, who is still recovering from back spasms, and stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav, who missed out due to personal reasons. In their absence, Jasprit Bumrah led them for the first time in the IPL and put PBKS in after winning the toss. The hosts rode on Prabhsimran Singh’s chancy 57 off 32 to reach 100 in 11 overs before Shardul Thakur’s four-for derailed them. They were 140 for 7 in the 17th over but Azmatullah Omarzai, Xavier Bartlett and Impact Player Vishnu Vinod ransacked 60 in the last 22 balls to lift them to 200 for 8.
Ryan Rickelton set up the chase for MI with his 23-ball 48. But it was Tilak Verma who played the pivotal role with his unbeaten 75 off 33. With 50 needed from three overs, he, with the help of Will Jacks, took MI over the line on the penultimate ball of the match.
Priyansh Arya opened his account with a second-ball four off Deepak Chahar and Prabhsimran picked up two fours off Bumrah in the following over. In all, the two combined to hit ten fours in the powerplay but there were plenty of dot balls and not a single six. To make things worse for PBKS, Chahar bowled Arya with a knuckleball in the final over of the powerplay, after which PBKS were 55 for 1.
Prabhsimran was on 10 off 11 balls at one point. He was dropped on 5 by Naman Dhir off Bumrah and then on 28 by Corbin Bosch off his own bowling. He made full use of those reprieves and slog-swept Raghu Sharma for back-to-back sixes. He brought up his fifty off 29 balls and took PBKS past 100.
Shardul turned the tide in the 12th over. Bowling cross-seam into the pitch, he had Prabhsimran miscue an aerial hit to deep third. Two balls later, he got another cross-seam delivery to straighten and ping Shreyas Iyer’s off stump. From the other end, Raj Bawa bowled Cooper Connolly for 21 off 22 in the next over. A little later, Shardul removed Suryansh Shedge and Marco Jansen, leaving PBKS on 140 for 7 in 16.2 overs.
PBKS were so down and out that they decided to bring in Vinod as Impact Player, and the move seemed to have paid off. First, Omarzai struck four sixes and two fours in a 17-ball 38. Then Vinod (15 not out off eight) and Bartlett (18 not out off seven) added 34 off just 12 in an unbroken stand for the ninth wicket to take the side to 200.
Arshdeep Singh started the chase with a two-run over, after which Rickelton took over. He showed a preference for the leg side; 34 of his 48 runs and all four sixes came on that side of the wicket. Of the 59 runs MI scored in the powerplay, 47 came from Rickelton’s bat, while Rohit Sharma was struggling on 12 off 15.
PBKS made a comeback after the powerplay. Omarzai removed Rickelton, Dhir fell to Jansen, and Yuzvendra Chahal bowled Rohit to leave them 89 for 3 after ten overs.
While Tilak kept finding boundaries and moved to 22 off 11 balls, PBKS kept Sherfane Rutherford quiet. Jansen conceded just five singles in the 14th over and Arshdeep gave away only eight in the 15th, leaving MI with 72 to get from the last five.
Jacks and Tilak hit Jansen for two sixes and two fours in the 18th over. Arshdeep left Bartlett with 14 to defend in the final over but he started with a full toss, which Jacks hit over long-off for a six. A single and a dot brought it down to eight required from three. Tilak showed no nerves and smashed the next two balls for sixes to seal the win.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 205 for 4 in 19.5 overs (Rohit Sharma 25, Tilak Varma 75*, Ryan Rickelton 48, Sherfane Rutherford 20, Will Jacks 25*; Azmatullah Omarzai 2-36, Marco Jansen 1-55, Yuzvendra Chahal 1-32) beat Punjab Kings 200 for 8 in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 57, Cooper Connolly 21, Azmatullah Omarazai 38, Vishnu Vinod 15*, Xavier Bartlett 18*; Shardul Thakur 4-39, Deepak Chahar 2-36, Corbin Bosch 1-42, Raj Bawa 1-11) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup-winning team will arrive in Kuala Lumpur today (Friday) for a series of events marking the 30th anniversary of their triumph that stunned the cricketing world. The tour, organised by Tourism Malaysia, Cricket Malaysia and the Royal Selangor Club, will feature several events spread across four days.
The highlight of the visit will be a T20 game involving the World Cup-winning side on Saturday, starting at 11:30 a.m. Sri Lanka time. The match will be telecast live on Dialog TV.
A gala dinner, coaching clinics for underprivileged children conducted by the former world champions and several fan engagement activities are also part of the programme.
Sri Lanka’s dependable number three from the 1996 campaign, Asanka Gurusinha and team physiotherapist Alex Kountouri, both based in Melbourne, had already arrived in Kuala Lumpur ahead of the event, while the rest of the squad were due to leave Colombo on Thursday night.
“I am really excited and looking forward to the event. It’s always fun to get together with the boys and relive the good old days. It’s going to be a cracking few days,” Gurusinha told The Island.
“Without us even realising it, 30 years have gone by since we became world champions. All the boys are still close to each other just like we were back then and as I said, it’s going to be an exciting few days,” he added.
The organisers have secured several sponsors for the occasion and hope the presence of Sri Lanka’s celebrated side will help generate greater interest in cricket in Malaysia.
Malaysia became an associate member of the International Cricket Council in 1967 and remains an active member of the Asian Cricket Council. Earlier this year, they appointed former Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore as Director of Cricket.
The country has previously hosted ICC events, including the Under-19 World Cup, but the national side has struggled to keep pace with emerging Asian teams such as Nepal, Oman, UAE and Hong Kong.
Badminton remains Malaysia’s most popular sport, accounting for ten of the country’s 15 Olympic medals. Football too enjoys a passionate following, leaving cricket fighting an uphill battle for wider appeal.
Rex Clementine
in Kuala Lumpur
Tilak Varma (c), Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Riyan Parag (vc), Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Harsh Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Arshad Khan
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