Battle rages within Sri Lanka cricket

By David Sabapathy - TNS

COLOMBO – Sri Lanka Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge challenges current interim committee chairman Arjuna Ranatungas' appointment of an acting chairman to Sri Lanka cricket.

The minister said no acting chairman of the interim committee running Sri Lanka Cricket can be named without his consent. He was reacting to reports that Arjuna Ranatunga had appointed Guy de Alwis to run the board in his month long absence.

“No one has a right to declare anyone as acting chairman without my approval. And as I see it there is no need for an acting appointment,” said Minister Lokuge.

Meanwhile the Secretary of the interim committee of Sri Lanka Cricket and the only Tamil in the committee, Mr. K. Mathivanan has been cornered and sidelined from his functions by the interim committee head Arjuna Ranatunga, a Colombo daily report.

“It is learnt that Mathivanan has also being gagged from making statements to the Press which makes his case unprecedented wherein a secretary of an international organisation has been told to stay away from the media,” the daily further reports.

Many within the board consider Mr. Ranatunga’s actions are dictatorial and he along with De Alwis had appointed sub-committees without the approval of the interim committee. They say, Mathivanan is a genuine promoter of the game and players and seeks nothing in return. His ouster could only spell doom for the game’s administration in the country.

Meanwhile Days after Sri Lankan Cricket (SLC) current interim committee chairman Arjuna Ranatunga dismissed the Indian Premier League’s Twenty20 matches as “three-minute noodles” and finalised a one-day series against Pakistan that clashed with the IPL, the Lankan board on Tuesday asked PCB to postpone the ODIs.

“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to confirm that as per chairman Arjuna Ranatunga’s discussions with the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman, Sri Lanka Cricket is prepared to assist Pakistan only after the scheduled IPL tournament in India,” a statement said.

The original schedule of the five-match bilateral series, set to take place after Sri Lanka’s tour of the West Indies, would have clashed with IPL matches.

Mr. Ranatunga, during a recent private visit to Canada, said the IPL tournament was not a place for cricketing greats and its matches were like “three-minute Maggi noodles”, invited an angry reaction with in BCCI.  “For me, it is not cricket. It is raw power. How can any great players fit in it?” he further said on IPL tournament, a brainchild of BCCI.

There was also speculation in India that BCCI may consider cancelling the forthcoming Indian cricket tour to Sri Lanka if its top players were not released for the IPL.

Top Sri Lankan players like Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chaminda Vaas, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dilhara Fernando have signed on for big money to play in the IPL.

Also the senior Pakistan players, Shoaib Akhtar, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Malik, Salman Butt, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal have also signed to play in the lucrative tourney.

The change of mind by Mr. Ranatunga came on as some of the Sri Lankan players are decided to announce their retirement from one-day cricket, if SLC is not granting the necessary permission to play the IPL in India.

“If that happens, SLC will be helpless to stop them because the players who are touring the Caribbean at present are not bound by a central contract with SLC, but only by a tour contract which will cease to exist at the end of the tour making them free to play where and when they want,” a Sunday weekly said.

Ranatunga played 93 Tests and 269 one-day internationals in an 18-year career that ended in August 2000.