Harin Fernando, the dynamic Sports Minister, has managed to convince International Cricket Council (ICC) to held the election on February 21, Cricket Age reliably learns. Previously, ICC had suggested SLC to conduct the election before February 9.
According to sources, Harin Fernando, on Sunday, met ICC Chief executive David Richardson in Dubai. During the fruitful meeting, Harin explained the situation and necessary amendments for the transparent SLC election and David Richardson also assured Sports Minister to give full support.
It is noteworthy that since last few days, former SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala is spreading lie that ICC would terminate Board’s membership if election would not conducted before February 9.
However, due to some amendments and technical adjustments, the much awaited SLC election has been postponed by two weeks and now to be held on February 21.
The misinterpretation had occurred in the Sinhala translation of the regulation to appoint an Appeals Committee where the former Minister Faiszer Musthapha said a retired judge will lead the committee. Even though the English edition says it as it was spelt , the Sinhala translation had missed the word ‘retired ‘ in the translation causing the confusion.
In a letter issued by the Secretary to the Sports Ministry and Competent Authority for the SLC, Chulananda Perera had said few days ago that the cricket election could only be held after the ratification of that error.
“It was depicted that there was a technical error in the translation from Sinhala to English. We have sought advice from the Attorney General regarding the above mentioned issue. According to the Attorney General, the cricket elections could be held only after the technical errors have been rectified. In due course I have informed the ICC and the Sri Lanka Cricket Election Committee on the above matter. Once the above mentioned situation has been corrected we will make necessary arrangements for the Sri Lanka Cricket elections to be held lawfully” Perera had stated in the letter.
The SLC election was previously scheduled to be held on 7 February with a grace period which was given by the ICC to hold SLC election ends on 9 February. But, according to legal experts it will take at least 2 weeks to correct the error as the Sports Ministry has to rectify it and send it to the AG’s department and then to the Legal Draftsman which should be followed by a Gazette notification of the amendments. Only then an Appeal Committee could be formed to take up the appeals against nominees for the elections.
