Sri Lanka Sports Minister Dallas Alahapperuma, who was missing from the action ever since taking over from Harin Fernando in November last year, on Wednesday (February 5) suddenly switched himself into active mode and within few hours made several high profile appointments for Cricket and all other Sports bodies, Cricket Age exclusively learns.
Most notably, Dallas has appointed a special investigation unit officials for next three years. Cricket Age has the access of Sports Ministry extraordinary gazette notification, dated February 5, that reads that SSP W.A.J.H. Fonseka has been appointed as director of the SIU, while SP S.M.J Samaranayake has been named his deputy.
The appointments were made under prevention of offences relating to Sports act, which was passed few months ago, largely due to humongous and sincere efforts of then Sports Minister Harin Fernando and his legal advisor Panduka Keerthinanda. In addition, Dallas has also made new appointments for Anti doping unit.
Cricket Age learns that Dallas has also sent a letter to Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC), that refers new appointments in various committees, including finance. Accordingly, KS Ruwanchanda De Silva, Sports Secretary, has replaced his predecessor Chulananda Perera as a Ministry representative at SLC. KS Ruwanchanda will also be a part of five members committee for the upcoming TV rights deal, which is scheduled to take place in March.
