Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee Chairman Arjuna Ranatunga says he is ready to bell the cat and settle the current impasse with the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

At the SLC’s last Interim Committee meeting on Tuesday, Ranatunga promised that he was willing to take up the issue with the BCCI and iron-out the differences.

On Thursday, Ranatunga told the SLC monthly media press briefing (held after almost nine months) that he had an excellent relationship with the BCCI officials – President: Shashank Manohar; Secretary: N. Srinivasan, IPL governing council member I.S. Bindra and former BCCI president Sharad Pawar. He said he had had discussions with them during the just concluded ICC meeting.

Earlier Ranatunga stated that Muttiah Muralitharan and Graeme Labrooy had visited India and had brought “a sheet of paper that contained some proposals”.

Subsequently acting on these proposals, the Sports Minister had sent a delegation to Bangkok to meet Indian cricket officials, including an Interim Committee member.

Ranatunga said he had asked the SLC CEO Duleep Mendis to forward him a report on what transpired at the meeting.

At Tuesday’s interim committee meeting, former Sri Lanka opening batsman Sidath Wettimuny, an IC member who was in the high-powered Lankan delegation to Bangkok, apprised the rest of the committee on what transpired at the meeting.

Wettimuny said that Lalit Modi. together with Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah, was very puzzled and shocked by the SLC’s attitude towards BCCI. They had said they had serious concerns with regard to the press statements released by some SLC officials.

Wettimuny said the Indians were very curious to find out the reasons behind the hostile manner in which SLC expressed concerns over BCCI/IPL. The former opening batsman said the Indian officials had told them that they never experienced such an attitude with any previous Sri Lanka cricket governing body. In particular, they were very surprised and concerned about the comments made by SLC Chairman Ranatunga at different forums.

Wettimuny said that BCCI was very disturbed that the proposal they had made to Sri Lanka Cricket in respect of the IPL with much confidentiality was released to the media. They also noted with regret that the SLC Chairman had made a very damaging comment in Dubai stating that BCCI was endeavouring to buy-over Sri Lanka Cricket by their proposals.

Mr. Modi told the Lankan delegation in Bangkok that this offer had been made in an effort to genuinely assist SLC which had a mutual understanding with the BCCI, but after they realised that an individual was trying to take credit for it, they had now decided otherwise.

The Bangkok meeting lasted for about two hours and ended by BCCI saying that the forthcoming Indian tours that have been indicated in the FTP up to 2012 stand unconfirmed at present.
They had said they were not ready for any negotiations or any other compromise with SLC, as long as SLC’s present hostile approach and the attitude towards BCCI remains.