Marionettes and iron-men and the cricket soup is churning
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During the last SLC AGM they were altogether. Now they are in different camps fighting for the crown in different forms barring Dayasiri Jayasekara . File pic
What’s so common between the Sri Lankan President’s decisions, which have effected so many ingenious changes in our day-to-day life — or to be precise, governance — and the cricket board elections? I do not think you need the three wise-men or any other sages to premise every common man with a wee-bit of commonsense would know that both are in total disarray.
Yet, let the bigwigs of the government, parliament and the judiciary solve controversies over matter governance and let us concentrate on what is happening at the ‘hots and the colds’ of cricket in the country.
Nominations were called from December 14 to 17 for the February 7 cricket elections, but still no-one knows what’s going on. From there, the process has to build on.
As it is, it is pretty much certain that it was the incumbent SLC President, Thilanga Sumathipala, who, in May this year, dealt the first blow to the cricket election process by formulating an elections committee that had certain flaws and what transpired after is no secret to anyone. The culmination of that conundrum was that all and sundry connected to the process looking a piece of the cake and fighting for the crown.
The process is in total chaos. According to what we have learned, Sumathipala may not come forward to contest the post of Sri Lanka Cricket president this time but, his marionette, Mohan de Silva, who also acted in the same capacity a while ago would be the ‘face’. They are confident that they stand a chance of pulling it off considering the weight that Sumathipala pressed-in during his tenures and ploughed more new votes through various gimmicks.
The next contender for the crown is Jayantha Dharmadasa, who is ineligible to contest on the face of the new eligibility criteria that were formulated during the tenure of Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera. Yet, one wonders why Dharmadasa is not giving up his quest – I am sure he is concocting a ‘flubber’ coated formula to prop his chances to the crown through the help of some genius legal luminaries.
The third contestant in the melee is K. Mathivanan – a man who has lived by cricket may be at his own peril. Yet, the kingmaker of this process is non-other than former iron-fisted former SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga.
Yet, there is another dark side to this episode – the plain and simple question is – can they hold the SLC AGM under the present circumstances. Mind you the ICC has directed in no uncertain terms that the SLC elections should be held by February 9, 2019, yet the possibilities of this date becoming a pipe dream are great.
We asked the man who is an expert in the country’s Sports Law — Panduka Keerthinanda. We asked him what the implications could be. He said, “As we all know, a quo warranto case has been filed by the 122 members of parliament. As a result, the Court of Appeal has given a stay order, suspending the Prime Minister and the other ministers from functioning in their posts; therefore they cannot function as a cabinet. So when it comes to Sri Lanka Cricket, the line minister is the sports minister. So far the Sports Minister has not appointed the appeal committee for elections. The elections committee has been appointed. The nominations for elections are being called from December 14 to 17. According to the sports law and the sports regulations, the final appeal has to be submitted to the Sports Minister. As a result, the minister’s powers cannot be transferred to anyone else. There is a competent authority, who is the secretary to the Sports Ministrys. But the competent authority cannot appoint an appeal committee. The sports ministry secretary cannot usurp the powers of a cabinet minister. Therefore there is a legal issue.”
Keerthinanda added that he learned on last Tuesday that the SLC elections had been postponed indefinitely by Dhammika Muthugala, the Sports Ministry’s Director General. But, according to Keerthinanda, Muthugala, too, does not have the authority to postpone the elections; it has to be done by the elections committee, according to the procedure.
“How can an election committee function; it has to study if the candidates are eligible or not? If the elections committee takes a decision and if someone is challenging that; they must have the right to appeal to the minister; yet, now the minister is not functioning. As it is, the SLC and the sports ministry will have to liaise with the ICC and re-schedule the SLC elections until such time this legal tangle is unravelled. At the same time it is the election committee that called for elections and it is this committee which could postpone the same. There are more than 160 eligible voters at this AGM and they must be given sufficient time to prepare themselves,” the sports law expert said.
Finally Keerthinanda explained, “According to the Sri Lanka Sports Law, Act No 25 of 1973 Section 30 clearly says that the final decision on the appeal against National Associations of Sport is given by the sports minister. Any person who is aggrieved by any decision or any action by registered sports association may in accordance with the succeeding provisions of the law appeal to the minister against such decisions or action and the minister’s decision on such appeals shall be the final and conclusive one. But, after the 1978 constitution, the process has changed and the new regulations say the aggrieved party could make representations to the minister of sport”.
Hey presto! The elections committee woke up from its slumber a day prior to the handing of the nomination papers squashing early speculation. The elections are now scheduled to be held as scheduled. Yet, with the prevailing general political intricacies you might be ruled out LBW off a ball pitching outside the leg stump.
Yet, the irony is we are seeing the same old wines being bottled in new jars. Firstly, Thilanga Sumathipala, Mohan de Silva, Jayantha Dharmadasa and K. Mathivanan served in the previous cricket administration.
The closest allies in the previous Dharmadasa cricket administrations were Mohan de Silva and Nishantha Ranatunga. Today they are in two compartments. Dharmadasa is like a mom-less chicken looking for a home to roost. Mathivanan and Ranatunga, bitter rivals at one juncture, have patched up their differences and are looking to raise an army to subdue the Sumathipala cavalcade. It also has to be mentioned that there was a time when Mathivanan and Dharmadasa were like hand and glove. Without exaggerations one could write a pretty novel on this episode and I am sure it would be a bestseller.
The cricket soup is churning.