After Cricket Age exposed Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) CEO Ashley De Silva and COO Jerome Jayaratne, how they manipulated things on the last day of Thilnga Sumathipala Led administration to receive Salary Increments, there is a big uproar against the two authorities of the Board.
Not only the SLC employees have shown anger against this betrayal, ExCo Members have also described this as a ” Shameful Act”.
Thilanga Sumathipala led administration had to leave SLC in a embarrassing way, after The Court of Appeal gave a stay order on AGM, was scheduled to be held on May 31st.
However, before the departure of Sumathipala, Ashley and Jerome received hefty increments. Ashley, who is worldwide famous for his comical comments and acts on serious issues, has got 40 Percent Increment in his salary. Jerome Meanwhile, who always pretends to be a workaholic with laptop 24 hours in his hands, received 15 percent increment.
Obviously, The SLC employees are feeling betrayed and cheated after this happening.
According to sources, Since Sumathipala took over the SLC in 2015, the staff hasn’t received a single increment in salary, even though he always claimed that under his supervision the board is making big profit.
“Even though Sumathipala always self-proclaimed that SLC is making big money, the truth is that Last increment was given in September 2015 during the interim cimmittee hedead by Sidath Wettimuny. Sumathipala Led administration didn’t increase a single rupee in two years” An ExCo Member told Cricket Age in term of animonity.
“To be honest, we are stranded. In last two and half years not once they increased our salaries, even though cost of living has shot up. We depend on what we can make from overtime payments as we have extended our salaries to the maximum with bank loans. So after paying our loans most of us hardly gets less than 40,000 Or 30,000. how can we feed our families? Meanwhile they are increasing their salaries” An SLC top ranked Employee told Cricket Age.
In this kind of scenario, having heard the news of Ashley and Jerome salary increments is like putting salt on their wounds.
“This is a shameful act. As the CEO and COO, they must think about the staff, if Mr. Sumathipala couldn’t think about them. But they also turned opportunists and managed to Increase their own salaries” he told further.
The most disgusting fact is that Their Increments were approved without following the proper procedure. According to sources, the increments of both Ashley and Jerome were not discussed at ExCo. According to SLC Constitution, all staff increments needs to be discussed at house board and recommend to ExCo.
However, Sumathipala Led administration didn’t follow any of the procedure. Not only this, as SLC normaly records all the ExCo meetings, the recording of last few meetings proves that the increment matter of Ashley and Jerome was never been discussed.
“The Increments matter was not discussed at any meeting. And, if needed, we are ready to give affidavits against this” the ExCo member added.
