In one of the most outrageous step to bring Sri Lanka Cricket back on track, the Attorney General department on Monday instructed to change the country’s Sports Law before conducting the board election, Cricket Age reliably learns.
The Previous Sports Minister Faizer Mustapha appointed Competent Authority Kamal Padmasiri had called for the nominations and had started the process for conducting the election on February 9. However, Faizer’s successor Harin Fernando took the initiative to clean up the current mess up at SLC by approaching AG’s department for the direction.
According to sources at AG’s department, Faizer Mustapha is responsible for calling for SLC by following wrong process. According to sources, first, Faizer violated the Sports Law regulations by appointing his secretary Kamal Padmasiri as SLC Competent Authority under section 41. Then, he erred by not appointing the election committee for the SLC election. And in another blunder, he misled the cabinet by putting a wrong cabinet paper. Shockingly, Faizer is the counselor of country’s president Maithripala Sirisena, yet, he committed continues blunders to put SLC in further mess.
There is strong possibility that Faizer deliberately did all these to benefit discarded SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala. Reason to believe on this are obvious. Until 2015, Sports law and it’s regulations were intact and Sri Lanka national cricket team was also doing well. Then, Sumathipala became the president of SLC and he immediately convinced his good friend then Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara to change the Sports Law according to his suitability. That was the main reason former SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga went to court just before the proposed SLC election on May 31st last year and brought a stay order.
“If SLC election will be held with current Sports law, which has lot of irregularities, after the election someone will again go to the court and Sri Lanka Cricket will suffer further. So, new Sports Minister Harin Fernando has taken a courageous initiative by approaching our department to change the Sports Law before conducting the election” a top official of AG’s department told Cricket Age.
Now, as AG’s department has given his approval for the change in Sports law, the SLC election will most likely to be postponed by one or two months. Cricket Age further learns that after changing the Sports Law, the Sports Ministry will call for fresh nominations and fresh SLC election!
It is noteworthy that right after taking over as Sports Minister, Harin Fernando has shown the will and courage to bring Sri Lanka Cricket back on track by making bold and right decisions. And, by getting nod from the AG’s department for the changes in Sports law, he has taken a decisive step in cleaning up SLC, the most corrupted cricket board as per the International Cricket Council (ICC).
