Hold SLC elections or get blacklisted, ICC informs President AKD

Colombo, June 22 ( Daily Mirror) - The International Cricket Council has put forward a request to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to hold the elections of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on or before July 31, and has emphasised that if local authorities fail to do so, Sri Lanka once again risks being blacklisted by the ICC, the Daily Mirror reliably learns.

In a meeting held between ICC Chairman Jay Shah and President Dissanayake at the Presidential Secretariat last week, it is reliably learnt that the ICC Chief had expressed the Council’s dissatisfaction in seeing SLC being politicized and urged the President to hold the SLC elections before the mentioned deadline.

Any further delay will result in Sri Lanka being blacklisted by the ICC as it had been in 2023.

Shah flew down to Colombo last week in an inaugural flight between Ahmedabad and Colombo launched by Fitsair and held discussions with President Dissanayake and other key stakeholders from Sri Lanka Cricket. Discussions also focused on the new interim committee, which was formed to oversee the affairs of SLC, headed by former parliamentarian Eran Wickremeratne.

Since the resignation of former SLC Chief Shammi Silva and the SLC Executive Committee, the Sports Ministry temporarily took over the administration of SLC and appointed the new interim committee or better known as a transformation committee, to implement structural reforms and draft a new constitution.

However, the ICC has always strictly imposed a non-interference policy requiring SLC to remain independent and free from political control. In 2023, when the former government had sacked the SLC board and replaced it with an interim committee following poor World Cup performance, the ICC had suspended Sri Lanka’s membership, citing government interference in its administration. However, it lifted this suspension in January 2024.

Former SLC Chief Shammi Silva was requested to step down by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in April, following growing complaints and concerns raised by players.

Shammi and the executive committee then resigned, paving way for the new interim committee to be appointed which includes former National players such as Kumar Sangakkara and Roshan Mahanama