Sri Lanka Cricket to be run by interim committee headed by Wettimuny

Mired in controversies owing to allegations of corruption, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is to be run by an interim committee, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was quoted as saying to media today. The new interim committee is to be headed by Sidath Wettimuny, once  chairman of selectors and a member of two previous interim committees, ToL learns. The SLC Annual General Meeting to elect office bearers was to be held on April 30 and the nominations for positions were to be accepted from today. "There are corruption allegations on the cricket administration. So we need to clean the system before the elections can be held," Wickremesinghe was quoted as telling  a public gathering this morning. "The SLC owes 500 million rupees to the State Engineering Corporation, so the parliament has the responsibility to go into all these transactions," Wickremesinghe said. Under the local sports law, the Sports Minister is empowered to appoint interim committees to run governing bodies. The SLC has been run under several such politically appointed interim committees since 2005 for seven years. However, a new ICC regulation for independently-elected governing bodies by mid 2012 brought the period of interim committees to end.