Once again the winds of change seem to blow across Maitland Place. Last week speculation was rife that the fourth interim committee (Or the fifth?)since the overthrow of the Thilanga Sumathipala administration, was about to be installed for Sri Lanka Criket.
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 |
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| Minister
Gamini
Lokuge |
Jayantha Dharmadasa |
Thilanga
Sumathipala |
D.S. De Silva |
On March 24, 2005 the then Sports minister Jeevan Kumaranatunga claiming "There have been many complaints regarding financial mismanagements at Sri Lanka Cricket and after looking at the accounts I found out that everything was not all right," annulled the administration of Mohan de Silva – a close aide of Thilanga Sumathipala and installed Jayantha Dharmadasa at the helm of Sri Lanka Cricket and that administration ran untill the sudden parachuting of Arjuna Ranatunga to the top in January 2008.
However the Arjuna Ranatunga administration barley survived and crashed in just eleven months with the administration being handed over to the secretary of the Ministry of Sport S. Liyanagama, acting as the competent authority. Even at this juncture there were speculations of SLC elections and in fact the Dharmadasa-Sumathipala factions were gearing up for any eventuality.
On March 20, 2009, Sports Ministry Secretary went back to his official duties after a three month cricketing stint making way for former Lankan leg spinner D.S. de Silva and his interim committee to take over.
The Minister of Sports Gamini Lokuge also acknowledged that was an impending change, but of a different manner. He said “As far as I know there is going to be an election at the SLC very soon or as soon as possible. We have already obtained the cabinet approval for the necessary changes in the structure and we have sent the relevant documents to the Attorney General’s department. Now it is over two months since we have forwarded these documents to them and we also have sent several reminders to expedite it. I can assure you that as soon as I get the green light for the AG’s department with the formulation of the necessary changes we will definitely go in for fresh elections. Besides that I am not aware of any other changes to the cricket administration right now”.
It is learnt that when the elections are held once again the Dharmadasa-Sumathipala factions will be in the fray. |
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