Former vice presidents of Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) Jayantha Dharmadasa, Mohan De Silva and K. Mathivanan will all contest for the presidential post in the upcoming board election. However, the much bigger news is that Thilanga Sumathipala has decided to skip the election.
All the candidates have submitted their nominations on Monday, December 17.
Cricket Age had published on December 6 itself, that Sumathipala would not contest the election, largely due to a new resolution of the International Cricket Council (ICC), that bares any person from contesting cricket board election, who is directly or indirectly involved in gambling business. Even though, Sumathipala has always denied it, it is a open fact that his family runs a gambling outfit named Sporting Star.
Jayantha Dharmadasa, a stalwart of Sri Lanka Cricket, was vice president in the Sumathipala led administration, but walked out in the May last year after he opposed certain decisions and dictatorship of Sumathipala.
Mohan De Silva, meanwhile, Will contest for the top post from the Sumathipala camp and will hope to revive the floundering fortune of his former president.
Mathivanan was also a part of Sumathipala led administration in its last tenure. However, this time, he is gearing up to contest against Sumathipala camp.
A stalwart of Sri Lanka cricket, in his previous as vice president, Mathivanan never allowed misusing of the power and money to some of the rouges in Sumathipala administration. At SLC, he has been considered as one of the honest and no nonsense administrator, who never misused power and fame of SLC, unlike some of the other administrators of Sumathipala camp.
During his previous tenure, he mostly served as vice president of domestic cricket and tried his best to give New dimensions to the structure. However, some of the rouges of his administration diluted his efforts by bringing disrepute to Sri Lanka cricket because of their involvement in match fixing in domestic cricket.
Interestingly, Shammi Silva, the notorious and controversial treasurer of former administration, will also contest for the presidential post. A man with plenty of financial irregularities and suspected frauds, Shammi Silva was the sloe reason of Sumathipala’s demise in the previous tenure.
Former World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga, meanwhile, has decided to contest for the vice president post. His brother Nishantha Ranatunga has also come forward for the secretary post.
The SLC election are scheduled for February 7.
