The Sri Lanka Parliament: The Sri Lanka Parliament has unanimously passed a joint proposal to remove the office-bearers of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the sport’s governing body in the country, which the lawmakers claimed to be ‘corrupt’. In a rare unison, both the government and the opposition joined hands to pass the motion titled ‘Removal of corrupt office-bearers including President from SLC’ without a vote.
The motion, which was proposed by the opposition, was seconded by the government and the decision was taken after a day-long debate in the Parliament.
However, the legality of the 225-member Parliament’s decision against a private sports body which is run under the International Cricket Council (ICC) is not clear.
During the debate, a minister warned that the Parliament’s decision could lead to an ICC ban on SLC, which could be interpreted as an interference in the sports body.
After a series poor performances, especially the 302-run defeat against India at ongoing ICC ODI World Cup being played in the neighbouring country, cricket enthusiasts, fans, the public and the politicians have demanded the SLC management to resign immediately.
Sri Lanka ended their campaign on Thursday on a losing note against New Zealand to finish in the bottom part of the table, winning just two out of their nine group matches.
Protests were staged in front of SLC headquarters in the heart of Colombo, and on Thursday, the police had to block the approach roads to the cricket office as protesters tried to surround it.
Following public pressure, Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe had on Monday sacked the SLC officials and appointed an Interim Committee headed by former cricketer and World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ratatunga to run the sport in the country.
However, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was angry over the Sports Minister’s decision, had demanded him to withdraw the Interim Committee to which the minister disagreed and challenged to remove him from the post.
Later, SLC officials returned to their seats with a court order effective for 14 days.