Why cricket is seeking a new constitution?
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Neither do we have a stable club tournament or a fully fledged provincial tournament - File pic
Thilanga Sumathipala is kind of a legend. Undoubtedly, in the annals he would be remembered for his cricket related activities, over anything else.
His nearly quarter century association with cricket administration has definitely made an impact – good or bad, but the most important question now is: How does the cricket fraternity hope to move forward under the present circumstances? Some say the game has got too politicised and, at the same time, every election system to choose the high chairs at Sri Lanka Cricket cricket has been lopsided and, under the present conditions, even if the president of the land stands against Sumathipala, the victor is likely to be the latter.
Sri Lanka Cricket counts to one of the biggest number of votes at elections in comparison to other cricket bodies. It adds up to a staggering 140, of which a good number are deadwood or misfits. Then the SLC is trying to push towards a system of provincial cricket but, our very cricket system is club based. This is only the tip of the iceberg because, in cricket, governance, in the past 25 years, has had more full stops and commas than a smooth flow, for more than one reason.
At present, almost every top former cricketer is screaming out, asking for a change in the cricket constitution, and now, the vibes are very strong — so much so, it looks as if Sports Minister Faiszer Musthapha himself seems to be thinking positively on the issue.
Unlike any other cricketing nation, Sri Lanka has its own uniqueness. In short, no other cricketing nation on earth had managed to push the country towards Test status with only one cricketing capital — Colombo. It has mainly a club-based tournament, to complete more than 90 percent of its domestic activity, backed by 10 percent of school cricket.
At the same time, the gap between Lanka’s domestic game and the top International Standard is huge. Though Sri Lanka has the most organised under 19 tournament in the world, we still have not managed to win the under 19 ICC World Cup. Yet, Sri Lanka has won the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1996, and then went on to capture the ICC T-20 Championship in 2011.
The magic is that the Lankans do posses more than their fair share of talent, while governance has always been questionable. Why? Especially after 1996, we have had an overdose of a Sumathipala cricket doctrine and thus cricket has been driven in and out of Interim Committees, to get hampered by the present crisis of a legal impasse which, once again, was precipitated by Sumathipala himself.
Many still argue, had he attended to the election committee in question, judiciously, by now he would have been enjoying his second successful term for the first time, in his stay as SLC President, yet, he opted to be rash and the result was inevitable.
Initially, the Lankan style of club cricket had its own three-tier system within the same club, where players were promoted and relegated within the club system. It was almost foolproof, and that helped the clubs keep a high profile in domestic cricket. Yet, that system was replaced when the authorities began to increase the number of top division clubs from 10-12 to the present 24, the reason being votes taking pride of place over cricketing interests.
During that era, the most regular top cricket playing clubs were SSC, NCC, CCC, BRC, Tamil Union, Bloomfield, Moors, Colts, Saracens and Panadura SC. Barring Panadura SC, the rest of the clubs could boast of their own facilities, yet, they too had the required three divisions of cricket.
However, after the expansion policy, the top division club cricket became so crowded that many of the new clubs could not boast of the three-layer system.
In the midst, Sumathipala took over the reins in the early 2000s and began to expand the District and Provincial system, allegedly as a vote generating ploy, rather a than a calculated cricketing move. This ploy resulted in the system expanding drastically — vote-wise of course — without an apparent dividend to the game. For more than 15 years, we Sri Lankans have been looking to promote a provincial system, but to date, we have only been able to come up with a glorified extension of the club cricket system.
Right now, Sri Lanka does not have either a top grade club cricket tournament nor a settled provincial cricket system. Yet, the only system that thrives is the vote base, that singularly support base promoted by Sumathipala.
Since Sumathipala managed to get a stranglehold on the vote base now, he has also managed to keep away would-be competitors such as Jayantha Dharmadasa, Upali Dharmadasa and Ana Punchihewa — cricket administrators who have not played the game at the highest level. The clause excluding those who have not played the game at the highest level from contesting the election under any circumstances was introduced during the tenure of Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera, not so long ago.
At present, the following organisations are eligible to vote at the SLC AGM.
Provincial Associations:
Southern Province, North Central Province, Uva Province, Western Province and Central Province. (10 votes)
Associations:
Defence Services Sports Board, Mercantile Cricket Association, Nationalised Services Cricket Association, Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association, Sri Lanka State Services Cricket Association and Sri Lanka University Sports Association. (12 votes)
District Associations:
Ampara District Cricket Association (DCA), Anuradhapura DCA, Badulla DCA, Batticaloa DCA, Colombo DCA, Galle DCA, Gampaha DCA, Hambantota DCA, Jaffna DCA, Kalutara DCA, Kandy DCA, Kegalle DCA, Kurunegala DCA, Matale DCA, Matara DCA, Moneragala DCA, Nuwara Eliya DCA, Polonnaruwa DCA, Ratnapura DCA, Trincomalee DCA and Vavuniya DCA. (40 votes)
Cricket Clubs:
Bloomfield C&AC, Bohra’s SC, Burgher Recreation Club, Catamarans SC, Chilaw Marians CC, Colombo Colts CC, Colombo CC, Colombo Malays CC, Dimbulla C&AC, Galle CC, Kalutara Town Club, Kollupitiya Ground SC, Kurunegala SC, Leo’s CC, Liberty CC, Matara SC, Moors SC, Moratuwa SC, Mutwal SC, Negombo CC, Nomads SC, Panadura SC, Nondescript CC, Peterson Lane Play Ground SC, Saracens SC, Sebastianites C&AC, Sinhalese SC, Tamil Union C&AC and University of Colombo. (56 votes)
(Above organisations boast
of 2 votes each)
Affiliated Clubs:
Antonians SC, Badulla CC and Badureliya CC, Kalutara Physical Culture Circle, Kegalle CC, Kurunegala Youth CC, Lankan CC, Nugegoda SW&C, Old Anandians SC, Old Cambrians SC, Old Dharmapalians SC, Old Trinitians SC, Piliyandala TSC, Ragama CC, Rajarata SC, Rio SC, Sinha SC, United Southern CC, University of Kelaniya, University of Moratuwa, Wattala SC, Wennappuwa SC and Xavierites CC. (22 votes)
(Above Clubs have only 1 vote each)
This means the SLC elections at present, goes in with a total of 140 votes in the bag, and it is imperative this doctrine be modernised and changed to suit the demands of tomorrow’s cricket.
Last week, cricket doyen Sidath Wettimuny, while uncoiling his thoughts, said, “Today, what cricket needs is a solid constitution that will bring a better calibre of people to manage our cricket.” He said he has been regularly talking to people such as Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena on the matter, and when there was a change in the minister of sport, he said they were hopeful that something would happen. He said, “We are unanimous in the view that, the only way the cricketers would get involved is, if they have a clear mandate to change the constitution and, may be, do a forensic study to see what has been going on during the past few years, put things in place and go away.”
Sports Law expert and lawyer Panduka Keerthinanda is of the view there are no impediments to change the SLC constitution and, in fact, now it is a court requirement. “As per the court of appeal case (186/2018), the judges granted interim relief to stay the elections of Sri Lanka Cricket, which was scheduled for May 31 this year. That was the first interim relief which was granted.
“Thereafter when the matter came up again on June 14, this year, all parties to the case gave an undertaking that new nominations would be called for the SLC elections in accordance with the Sports Law 25 of 1973, amendments and the regulations that were effected thereafter.
“There the court gave a clear road map to conduct the elections as per the sports law and the regulations. There they should take steps to make amendments to the constitution of Sri Lanka Cricket, that means Sri Lanka cricket constitution should be amended — and only thereafter, will they have the right to hold the elections.”