Arjuna appeals to President, Sports Minister to clean-up SLC

Arjuna Ranatunga MP speaking to the media

By P. D. de Silva

Former Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation and World Cup winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga appealed to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Affairs Dullas Alahapperuma to clean-up Sri Lanka Cricket.

Ranatunga made this appeal at a media briefing held at his Nugegoda residence on Thursday morning to voice his concern about the forensic audit report on Sri Lanka Cricket which was called for by the Deputy Auditor General and which was subsequently presented to Parliament as a Special Audit Report.

“This in itself is a matter of concern and we hope to question this in Parliament,” he said.

Ranathunga said that in the forensic audit report there were many allegations including financial irregularities, irregularities when granting TV rights, the appointment of former Sri Lanka Coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and many others which would be important to cleanup cricket in this country.

“I am aware that Hathurusingha has claimed compensation for wrongful termination of contract  and I suggest that if compensation has to be paid it should be recovered from those who recruited him,” he said.

He also claimed that he had received information that there were some voice recordings regarding irregularities at SLC and match fixing among the CDs MP Ranjan Ramanayake had in his possession. 

 He said that he had made a request for them and added that they would be made public if received.

 “It’s lawyers that are benefiting from Sri Lanka Cricket the most as SLC is embroiled in over forty ongoing court cases,” he claimed.

He also said that the present administration at SLC should be held responsible for the poor performance of the Sri Lanka Under 19 team at the Under 19 World Cup.