The Cabinet on Tuesday (September 24) approved Sri Lanka Sports Ministry Gazette to bar individuals with betting connections, Cricket Age reliably learns.
Last month, Sports Minister Harin Fernando had issued the gazette amending the National Association of Sports Regulations to ensure that anyone–or any member of his immediate family (being a spouse, parent, sibling, son or daughter or son-in-law or daughter-in-law)–who has an interest in “betting, gaming or wagering, or in a betting gaming or wagering organisation or is employed in the day to day operations of such organisation or organizations” is disqualified from holding office.
The regulation was directed at former SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala, who has publicly admitted to his family’s involvement in the betting business but managed to hold office given the ambiguity of the previous regulations. But the new law is well in line with the International Cricket Council’s newly amended Code of Ethics which requires its directors to have no connection whatsoever to gaming and betting industries.
Later, Harin Fernando, in a special directive, suspended Sumathipala from the SLC as immediate past President pending an inquiry.
This was a death blow to Sumathipala, the self-proclaimed godfather of Sri Lankan cricket, whose dream of getting elected to the highest chair in the ICC now seems shattered. Not only will the local regulation freeze him completely out of the game, the ICC’s new rules will shut him out of its board meetings even if domestic laws are changed in future.
