New Sports Law crucial element in getting ICC suspension lifted: Justice Minister

By Ranjith Padmasiri and Damith Wickramasekara

The government hopes that the new Sports Law it plans to introduce to enact a new Constitution for Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will be passed by early next year and convince the International Cricket Council (ICC) to lift its suspension on cricket in the country, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told Times Online.

The draft law will be based on the report of the committee headed by Justice K.T. Chitrasiri and will go a long way towards ensuring that the doors are shut for “corrupt persons” from taking over the administration of SLC, claimed the minister.

He said the report “has some excellent points” and that amendments will be done to the law if required. If the final draft is approved by Cabinet, the Bill can be finalized within two weeks, said Minister Rajapakshe.

He added that making allowances for the time needed to gazette the Bill, present it to Parliament, challenged in the Supreme Court and for the Court to deliver its verdict, it would still take at least 2 ½ months for the Bill to be passed by Parliament “even if everything moved smoothly and at maximum speed.”

Nevertheless, Minister Rajapakshe insisted the new draft Sports Law is the only solution to rectify issues at SLC. Both the government and opposition are in agreement that changing the Sports Law via a Parliamentary Act as per recommendations in the Chitrasiri report was the only way forward. “We can complete the process of passing the Bill by the first week of February if all goes according to plan,” he further said. 

Meanwhile, Timesonline understands that Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam has conveyed to President Ranil Wickremesinghe that Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe was aware that a group of SLC officials were preparing to obtain an injunction against the Interim Committee he appointed.

The AG has further conveyed to the President that certain assertions made by Minister Ranasinghe with regard to him as the AG and officers of his Department during the debate on the resolution on removing the current SLC office-bearers were inaccurate and misleading.

According to the AG, Minister Ranasinghe had not consulted with the AG’s Department prior to promulgation of the extraordinary gazette notification appointing an Interim Committee in place of the current SLC administration.