The reluctantness of Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) top administrators to clearly instruct former president Thilanga Sumathipala to not continue to his current position as immediate past President is affecting the functioning of the board big time. The simple fact is that as long as Sumathipala is anywhere near Maitland place, the SLC administration will not be able to take decisions for the betterment of the game.
In Sri Lanka cricket circuit, SLC President Shammi Silva is the brand ambassador of ‘hire and fire‘ philosophy. By showing aggression, he pretends that he doesn’t tolerate any sort of nonsense.
In Sumathipala case, though, Shammi is not firing at all. In one of the most mysterious and dramatic episode in Sri Lanka cricket history, Sumathipala and Shammi, Who were friends for ages, have suddenly turned rivals, as lucrative TV rights deal is around the corner!
Even though if we pretends to believe in this sudden rivalry, ideally, after a gazette notification by Sports Minister Harin Fernando, followed by another directive, Shammi Silva must have barred his One time Boss Sumathipala from coming at SLC headquarter. The new regulation of Sports Ministry clearly stated that any individual who is directly or indirectly involves in betting and gambling, is not eligible to hold any post in cricket. Forget about any connection with betting, here Sumathipala family runs a betting organisation through Sporting Star!
Even then, Sumathipala is roaming around and bossing SLC, pretending that he has nothing to do with these regulations and directives of Sports Ministry.
The reason, SLC, including ‘hire and fire’ Shammi Silva, has no courage to order Sumathipala, even if it according to country’s Sports Law! And, we are not talking about Executive Committee (ExCo) members at all, as now it is a well known fact that they survives on the blessings of Punchi Borella.
As a result, everything has been ‘unsorted’ in Sri Lanka cricket. There is no permanent head coach for national team, no spin bowling coach either. The so called High Performance centre (HPC) is also without any director, after the departure of Asanka Gurusinha.
Instead of solving all these important matters, that affects the performance of the national team directly, ‘scared’ SLC top administrators are (as usually) staring towards Sports Ministry, for yet another miracle!
