Uneasy limbo prevails at Maitland Place
View(s):Definitely there is a buzz in the air and a hum in the corridors. No 35 Maitland Place, Colombo 7 is back at work after a short limbo. Or is it an optical illusion like the famous Muralitharan action which was responsible for over two thousand victims at the end.
Right now there appears to be calm after the storm. This impasse did not take place because our cricketers were on the decline or their payments were getting late. The impasse popped when there appeared a Cricket Board election on the horizon. It was scheduled for March 31, 2015.
Nothing would have happened if the status quo remained the same. But, the now infamous rift between SLC President Jayantha Dharmadasa and Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga came to the fore, when the latter showed an interest in the big chair – an impending jump.
By virtue of their office, SLC President is also the President of the National Development Committee and the SLC secretary its secretary. With the bells tolling about the upcoming cricket board election, suddenly someone got this brilliant idea of disbursing some funds towards the development of the infrastructure of clubs and other cricketing institutions – whose representatives will be voting at the AGM.
While a programme for the disbursement of funds was being prepared, president Dharmadasa made a move to appoint one of his confidant’s — Priyantha Algama — as the Development Official. This was the initial slip into the abyss. There were moves against this appointment. If this appointment became a reality, Algama would have been put in charge of the disbursement of the Development Funds, too.
The Nishantha Ranatunga faction did not want the control of the funds to be completely in the hands of the Dharmadasa faction. The vehement protests saw the move being shelved by Dharmadasa. Yet, by then there were signs of the storm brewing and the casting awkward glances became the order of the day.
Then a scorecard was set up and to get the funds, each club had to give a plausible action plan as to how it intended using that money and at the same time the National Development Committee did a separate evaluation of each club and its contribution to the national grid. Yet when it came to the very point of physically making the allocations, differences emerged with some demanding more than what was allocated in terms of the scorecard.
So, the stakeholders started to join the two factions. The issue was getting serious. At this point two letters sent by — first the secretary Nishantha Ranatunga and then by President Jayantha Dharmadasa — led to the first showdown.
When matters were getting out of hand and Dharmadasa threatened to walk out with a section of the executive committee, Sport Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage summoned the two feuding parties.
At this meeting, Dharmadasa, responding to a query from the minister as to the origin of the feud, claimed that it all began with Ranatunga’s decision to oppose the ‘Big Three’ move in the ICC, when he had the idea of going along with it. He said as a result Sri Lanka had ended up at the losing end.
Then he also accused Ranatunga of wielding too much powers, being in every SCL Committee and even doing the CEO’s duties when it came to ICC matters.
The stars of the SLC second round – President Jayantha Dharmadasa and vice president Mohan de Silva
Then the minister told the two factions to forget this differences and work according to the SLC constitution.
Yet, Dharmadasa at that point did not fully agree to the request saying he would consider his move within the next few days. However, once back at the board, Dharmadasa was given the advice that he would be able to gain control by empowering the SLC CEO through an executive committee decree.
At the next executive committee meeting, Dharmadasa came up with a proposal, spelling out how he intended working within the existing constitution. The proposal was passed – albeit on its face value.
Days after the meeting, vice president Mohan de Silva picked up some clauses in the Dharmadasa proposals and said they contravened the constitution. He fired out a letter to the SLC President pointing out the questionable clauses. That opened the Pandora’s Box for the second time and the SLC air was full of allegations and counter allegations.
By the end of the second weekend of September, things had turned bad. Jayantha Dharmadasa’s brother Upali made a public statement saying the elected body should be dissolved and the rumour to the effect that the SLC administration would be dissolved and an interim committee set up. Even names like Upali Dharmadasa, Dhammika Ranatunga and Sanath Jayasuriya manning the interim committee surfaced. By Saturday, it was said that Minister Aluthgamage who was with President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Badulla campaigning for the Uva election had discussed the 
issue at hand.
By Monday, the two parties were back at the Reid Avenue ministry. This time the minister first had a chat with the two contenders concerned and then had another chat with SLC CEO Ashley de Silva. At the meeting the minister told the two top officials to work in unison with the aim of preparing the Lankan cricket contingent for the 2015 World Cup and requested them to revert to the pre-first meeting status. He also directed that the powers vested in the SLC CEO by the SLC President’s decree which was passed by the executive committee be withdrawn for the time being. He also requested the two parties to inform the executive committee of what transpired at that meeting at the Ex-Co meeting which was held that very evening.
However, the executive committee members after their meeting told the media that Dharmadasa did explain what transpired at the meeting with the minister to the executive committee members. But insiders said the SLC president did so and thereafter the members got down to the business of the day –allocating Development Funds to 45 institutions — and everyone was happy for the moment.
Now it is the aftermath. Like we explained before, once again, the mister-in-between is Ashley de Silva — the SLC CEO, who has become the sacrificial lamb. In reality it is now a worst case scenario for him. The minister now has openly stated that he had wanted the present SLC CEO out and he held this view even before he met the two SLC officials and de Silva at the last ministry meeting. Yet in retrospective the following questions cross our minds.
- Who initially employed this man and how long ago and in what capacity?
- Who was responsible for this man being promoted to the present office and on what criteria was it done?
- If he was not suitable for that position why was he kept for so long and why?
- Arguably, now if another suitable person comes to occupy that position would he be able to function in that position without interference?
- If this is the reason for this malady, why not make inquiries and punish the person who is responsible?
After the second round of the Dharmadasa-Ranatunga bout, Ranatunga is leading by a few points. Yet, the cold war still prevails. The employees are definitely feeling the heat of the cold wave, which is more than chilling. There is a buzz in the air and a hum in the corridors, but take care, if you are inside the building, watch your step — or else you may tread upon someone’s toe.