Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake said that he cannot remove or change any of the officials of cricket board as all of them have been elected to office through a democratic process of an election.
“The present Sri Lanka cricket board is an elected body. It’s not an interim committee. So, I cannot change any official. If there is to be a change, it has to happen through an election” Minister said after assuming duties in his new role at the Sports Ministry last morning.
Minister chose to speak specially about cricket as he felt he had a special interest in the sport.
“My belated father Gamini Dissanayake is the one who helped Sri Lank get test status in 1981. As the son, I have a historic mandate to look into the sport of cricket” claimed the Minister.
The new Minister however issued a stern warning to cricket officials not to overstep their limits of responsibilities.
“One or two officials cannot carry out the responsibilities of the other officials. I have to tell this clearly to the elected representatives, who have the powers in the cricket board, be it the president, treasurer or secretary, they should restrict their activities to their specified area and not interfere with anybody else’s area. I am the minister but I don’t go to poke my finger in the job of the other ministers. I do my role” said the Minister.
“I ask all the cricket officials to do their role and not to interfere with the roles of the others. It is not an ethical thing to do. I am going to issue strict guidelines on this to the cricket executive committee. I earnestly ask them not to take me to the next step by not heeding to my advice” warned the Minister.
Minister Dissanayake also emphasized that his focus during the government’s much publicized 100-day programme would entirely be on the cricket World Cup that would be held in Australia and New Zealand from Febraury 14 to March 29.
“We have to admit it. Within these 100 days, our priority is World Cup 2015. Our first priority is that, the second priority is that and the third priority is also that” claimed the Minister.
Dissanayake said his time in current office is limited to a 100-day period before the government faces a general election, but promised to give priority also to the sports of Athletics and Football alongside cricket and rugby, if he is rea-appointed as sports minister after the next general election.
The Minister said that he was aware of the controversies surrounding the sports.
“Sports is a highly controversial area. There is a lot of media reports about corruption and frauds” said the Minister who added that he would immediately set about finding if any corruption had taken place in the Sports Ministry itself.
“I am going to appoint a fact-finding committee to investigate the alleged misdeeds. This committee will be announced next week. They will be tasked to submit their report within a month” Minister revealed.
“I don’t like to point fingers at people for the sake of doing it. If there is an allegation of a fraud, we have to find out how it happened. According to information I have so far, there had indeed been certain misdeeds” added the Minister.
Minister Dissanayake felt that his deputy Minister Wasantha Senanyake should have been entrusted with a bigger responsibility.
“I feel he should been given a better- at least a non cabinet state ministerial portfolio. But my advice to him is; younger brother, be patient, take a lesson from me. You will get the recognition from the political leaders in due time” said Dissnayake.
“The secretary and all the other responsible officials of the ministry are here. So I like to tell them one thing. Don’t give Wasantha Senanayake the bitter, sad, sorry feelings I had as a deputy minister. He has the full freedom to work as he likes” informed Dissanayake.
Minister claimed he does not believe in sulking about the low points of his career.
“I do not like to recall certain episodes of my political career. The negative feelings make you bitter. I am not a bitter person. I like to look at the positives in life and move forward”.
(Channaka de Silva)
Pix by Waruna Wanniarachchi
