Almost the entire contingent of Sri Lanka Cricket’s International Umpires and Premier Umpires along with a host of others has resigned en-masse from the mother union – The Association of Cricket Umpires Sri Lanka with immediate effect.
Asoka de Silva heads the new Association of Professional Cricket Umpires. |
Top umpires Asoka de Silva, Kumar Dharmasena, Ranmore Martinesz, Linden Hannibal, Ruchira Palliyaguru, Maurice de La Zilva and K.K. Jayaweera initially tendered their resignations followed by Nilantha Bopage, Gratien Liyanage, Athula Wickrematilleke and another international umpire T.H. Wijewardena a day later.
Initially the above mentioned umpires branched out and formed into a sub-section calling themselves the ACUSL Colombo Branch, but, continued differences with the main body had led them to sever the umbilical cord.
The umpires who have left the main branch now are in the process of forming themselves into a separate association by the Name of Association of Professional Cricket Umpires which will be effective all island.
The head of the new association Sri Lanka sole member of the ICC elite panel Asoka de Silva said they were pushed towards this decision as they felt that the standards of umpiring was hitting a low and there was nothing being done to remedy the situation. He added “Now with this move we with our expertise will share our knowledge with the new entrants and bring the standards up.
Saman Amerasinghe – the head of the ACUSL |
“At the same time we hear that the mother Association have refused to accept our resignations, but according to the prevailing ACUSL constitution any one can resign from the Association at any given time. Besides that our new association will give all the encouragement to past cricketers of all levels to join our ranks as we feel that a person with a good cricket background could be more effective than a person who will have to go through the mill for a long time”.
The secretary of the ACUSL Dilshan de Silva explaining their stand on the issue said that the umpires in question have not done any school cricket matches and now they were aspiring to do the school matches with their new outfit and added:
“However we are against it and there must be ways of other umpires doing important matches too. At the same time we also have pointed out to the authorities about how this new association is going sustain themselves without an all island network and it is we who train and develop the new umpires and put them through the mill”.
The members of the new association stood at the just concluded Royal-Thomian and the Trinity-St. Anthony’s big matches.
The ACUSL is planning to take legal action against the defectors.
A spokesman for Sri Lanka Cricket said that they were trying to get the two feuding factions together and settle the issue amicably. But, then re-iterated: “We have our own systems and our own grading and we choose the respective umpires for the SLC organized matches within our system. We are not concerned to which society or to which association that they belong to we are only worried about how they fit our criteria and are graded by us”. |
E-mail
