A high-level ICC team, including a top Board of Control for Cricket in India official, is reaching Sri Lanka amid growing uncertainty over the administration of the island nation’s cricket board following the government’s appointment of an interim committee to run Sri Lanka Cricket.
According to sources, ICC deputy chairman Imran Khwaja is set to arrive in Sri Lanka on Friday night. He will be followed on Saturday by another ICC functionary, who is also a senior BCCI official, sources said.
The visit comes at a sensitive moment for Sri Lanka Cricket after Sports Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage appointed a nine-member interim panel on April 29 following the resignation of SLC president Shammi Silva and the executive committee.
The newly-appointed body, named the Cricket Transformation Committee, will be headed by opposition politician Eran Wickremaratna and includes former Sri Lanka captains Kumar Sangakkara, Roshan Mahanama and Sidath Wettimuny among its members. The other members of the committee are Tushira Radella, Avanthi Colombage, Prakash Schaffter, Upul Kumarapperuma and Dinal Philips.
The primary task of the interim committee is understood to be introducing structural reforms within SLC, which has repeatedly faced allegations of mismanagement and administrative instability over the years.
So far, the reasons behind the resignation of the Silva-led executive committee, despite having nearly 10 months left in its tenure, have not been officially made public. However, the resignations came shortly after Silva met Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
Reports in Sri Lankan media have suggested that the government’s intervention was triggered by the declining performances of the national men’s cricket team in recent months. The executive committee reportedly decided in an internal meeting earlier this week to resign en masse, paving the way for the interim body to take charge immediately.
In a statement issued after the resignations, Sri Lanka Cricket confirmed that Silva, along with the office-bearers and executive committee members, had stepped down with immediate effect. The board also said that the decision had been formally communicated to President Dissanayake and Sports Minister Gamage.
The ICC delegation’s visit gains further significance after Gamage publicly stated that the Sri Lankan government had not made any formal communication to the ICC regarding the appointment of the interim panel.
Under Sri Lanka’s Sports Law of 1973, the Sports Minister has the authority to dissolve national sports federations and appoint interim committees. However, direct government intervention in the functioning of elected cricket boards is generally viewed as being against ICC regulations.
How the ICC views the latest developments remains to be seen, although reports suggest that the world governing body has already been informally briefed about the changes and assured that elections to appoint a new administration would be conducted in due course.
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