Arjuna blames sports minister for cricketing woes

Sports

By M. Shamil Amit

The anti minister forum – Arjuna, Guy de Alwis and Hashan Tillekeratne.
(Pic by Ranjith Perera)

The deposed interim committee chairman Arjuna Ranatunga came out strongly against the Minister of Sport Gamini Lokuge for having him thrown out as the Chairman of the Interim Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket.
The former World Cup winning captain also has filed law suit against the action taken against him by the minister.

In a press briefing held at the SSC auditorium yesterday, Arjuna began by saying that he did not speak to anybody since he was put out by the minister was because he was concentrating on legal action that he was planning to take.

He said that “I have been given a chance by the courts to prove myself for the embarrassment that I underwent due to my sacking”. He stressed that the minister took this decision as he was doing things the right way.

Arjuna added “We stopped corruption as a result some of the officials did not like what was happening and I think that was the main reason why minister Lokuge took this dubious decision”. He went on to say that there is corruption going on yet and the man responsible is still working at SLC.

“During my tenure since January 2 last year things did not happen the way I wanted. I had to work with a committee given by the minister and they were going on a different track” and mentioned the names of K. Mathivanan and Sidath Wettimuny of being not cooperative.

“It was after a request I made to President Mahinda Rajapaksa that I was able to bring in three members of my liking and one of them was Aravinda de Silva”.

He also mentioned this was not a political forum “if not I wont be seated with Hashan Tillekeratne who is in the opposition politically. It was I who appointed Hashan as the manager of the Sri Lanka team to Bangladesh but what did the minister do -- he rejected it.

“Why we are here today is because we want to do something good to cricket in Sri Lanka. My sole aim was to produce another World Cup winning team but when everything was coming in place I was put out”.
He added that the present administrators will have to take the bulk of the blame for the present situation and the performance of the Sri Lankan cricketers. The SLC is run by unprofessional officials who do not know anything about cricket.

The cricketers are not to be blamed for the soup Sri Lanka cricket is in. He was of the view that Sri Lanka has the best and talented cricketers who are not second to other leading cricket playing nations.
Arjuna accused that even the ground conditions for the present series has been done to the liking of the Indian cricketers and not to the liking of two top bowlers we possess and added it as a pathetic situation.
He also did not forget to blast the local media saying some media journalists were always speaking on the negative side since he took over.

This was vouched by Guy de Alwis from the head table who also went to the extent of mentioning one particular newspaper but he failed to name.

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