SLC president unhappy with government action against board

The Sri Lanka Cricket president Thilanga Sumathipala is unhappy that the government has decided to hand over the cricket board's administration in hands of Competent Authority (CA).

I am saddened by the action of an individual, which has led to cricket being run by the government like nowhere else in the world," Sumathipala said after his term ended yesterday without an election to appoint office bearers.

Sports Minister Faiszer Mustapha appointed Kamal Padmasiri, a state bureaucrat as the CA claiming the minister was powerless to extend the term of the Sumathipala administration or appoint an interim committee to run cricket.

The SLC election scheduled on Thursday was stayed by the Court of Appeal following an intervention by Sumathipala's challenger to presidency Nishantha Ranatunga.

The court issued a stay order until June 14. Mustapha said the election would be held before 31 July.

Ranatunga alleged that Sumathipala is "ineligible to head the SLC given his connection with bookies and media houses".

I have been cleared of all these accusations of my links to bookies and newspapers yet they continue mud slinging," Sumathipala lamented.

Sumathipala said the appointment of a CA would mean that SLC would not be able to meet the June 30 deadline to submit audited accounts to the ICC. The audited accounts are mandatory for the SLC to receive the ICC funds, he said.