Banned former Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) president Thilanga Sumathipala’s Sports Ministry dreams shattered Friday, following an embarrassing defeat in general election. Contesting from the Moratuwa, Sumathipala, A SLPP candidate, performed poorly, having secured only 37693 preferential votes.
A well renowned figure in world cricket for his betting and gambling skills, Sumathipala was eyeing on Sports ministry portfolio in the run up of the election campaign.
“Every Sports Minister in Sri Lanka eventually became Cricket Minsiter. If I will be given Sports Minister post after winning the election, I will make sure to correct it” Sumathipala, who was banned for life in October 2019 by the International Cricket Council (ICC) itself on match fixing charges, shamefully claimed on June 24.
Sumathipala’s stooges at Punchi Borella were also working on the agenda to completely hijack Sri Lanka Cricket by taking control at Miatland Place and Sports Ministry both after the election.
However, knowing Sumathipala’s greed for control over cricket and political power, it is still likely that he will go behind everyone to secure a place in national list. Political analyst, however, rules out any such possibility.
“He has no moral right to claim for the national list, as he has finished at 16th place out of total 22 candidates. If he has a shame, he will realize the fact that he has been completely boycotted by the voters. Also, the SLPP, who has secured a landslide victory, will not back a loser like Sumathipala” a top political analyst of the country told Cricket Age.
Even when SLPP created a history, with Island wide verdict in it’s favour, Sumathipala turned out a non-starter.
“If he can’t win with a landslide of this magnitude, he must forget politics” another critic of Sumathipala said.
In October 2019, Sumathipala brought shame for the entire nation, when then Sports Minister Harin Fernando banned him for lifetime, based on ICC recommendations.
In a report handed over by the ICC to Sports Ministry, they had found incriminating evidence against Sumathipala. The report claims that SLC’s host broadcaster made a payment of US$ 100,000 to a private account operated by the former cricket chief in 1997. It has also emerged that half of this payment was meant to be set aside for then Sports Minister!
The payment had been done by Mark Mascarenhas, who founded Worldtel in 1989. Mascarenhas died of a car accident in Madras in 2002.
Sumathipala wasn’t the President of Board of Control for Cricket in 1997. The Board was headed by Upali Dharmadasa and Sumathipala was one of the Vice-Presidents. However, Sumathipala was the Chairman of Sponsorship Committee at that point.
Glen Palmer, a close confidant of Sumathipala once upon a time has spilled the beans on what had taken place more than 20 years ago. The report further establishes that Sumathipala had direct links with the betting industry and Palmer, who hails from the United Kingdom was helping him to further his interests in the betting industry.
Palmer and Sumathipala had fallen out and the former had come out with incriminating evidence including copies of cheques and telephone conversations.
