SLC slams ICC for 'gravely disrupting' sport in Lanka by withholding share of proceeds from WCs

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has been accused by Sri Lanka's cricket board of gravely disrupting the sport in the island nation by withholding its share of proceeds from World Cup tournaments.

The ICC had said last week that it was withholding Sri Lanka's share from the 2014 T20 World Cup and 2015 World Cup after the Colombo government dispensed with elections and appointed a local governing body.

The previous board had been sacked by sports minister Navin Dissanayake, who appointed a nine-member panel headed by respected Test player Sidath Wettimuny to clean up corruption at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Sport24 reported.

The new SLC management in a letter to ICC's chief executive David Richardson said that they were shocked by the ICC decision and expected monies due to them would be released without further delay.

The letter stated that the SLC would point out that these are monies which were due and payable by ICC to SLC from long prior to the appointment of the interim committee. It further stated that these are monies which are payable by ICC to SLC, irrespective of the body which is managing SLC for the time being.

The letter also said that the ICC was told of the national board's decision to appoint an interim committee to address corruption on April 2. It added that as ICC's recent actions would gravely disrupt cricket in Sri Lanka, SLC urges ICC to urgently obtain whatever information that might be required by ICC so that, SLC can continue with its programmes for cricket in Sri Lanka.

The ICC had said the minister's action in naming an interim panel was a breach of its constitution, which requires free and fair elections of office-bearers at a member board.