8 November 2023 08:17 am
President of Sri Lanka Cricket Shammi Silva (L) returning to SLC headquarters and Chairman of the Interim Committee Arjuna Ranatunga (R) seen here leaving the SLC premises yesterday.
Sports Minister tells President
By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana
The Sri Lanka Cricket crisis took yet another dramatic turn yesterday when Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe asked President Ranil Wickremesinghe to remove him from office while the Court of Appeal gave an order against the new interim committee headed by former skipper Arjuna Ranatunga.
Ranasinghe told Parliament that President Ranil Wickremesinghe wanted him to abolish the interim committee when he met him after the Cabinet meeting on Monday evening. “The President said he will take over the subject of sports under his purview. Then, I told him to remove me from the Cabinet,” Ranasinghe informed lawmakers in Parliament.
“Sri Lanka Cricket is run by robbers. Therefore, I will not abolish the interim committee. The decision of the judiciary to issue a stay order against the interim committee is to do with a conflict of interest,” the Minister also said.
Officials of the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had written cheques amounting to billions of rupees during the last few days as they were expecting that an interim committee would be appointed, Ranasinghe further said.
The Minister told Parliament that the lights of the Dambulla International Cricket Stadium had been changed in a hurry at a cost of Rs. 1.5 billion during the last few days.
He also said there is a risk of important documents at SLC being misplaced.
The Court of Appeal issued this interim order also suspending the operation of the gazette notification related to the SLC Interim Committee appointed by the Sports Minister.
In response to the interim order by the Court of Appeal, which suspended the operation of Sri Lanka Cricket’s Interim Committee, Chairman of the Committee Arjuna Ranatunga and Upali Dharmadasa, a committee member, were seen leaving the SLC premises last afternoon.
Meanwhile, after the departure of the Cricket’s Interim Committee members, President of Sri Lanka Cricket Shammi Silva and few of his officials returned to the SLC premises, leading the public to watch in wonder as to those exiting and entering the SLC