After their Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) election campaign 2021 was punctured by political pressure, former vice president K. Mathivanan camp is now gearing up to meet country’s Sports Minister in next few days, Cricket Age exclusively learns.
In February, in the lead up to the election, the battle to conquer the Maitland Place had become a high profile affair, when Mathivanan formed an opposition, comprising of Sri Lanka’s first test captain Bandula Warnapura and former board secretary Nishantha Ranatunga. They called themselves as ‘Big Three’ and emphasized on developing the game and bringing back the glory! It followed by a series of press conferences, proposals to arrest the slide of the game in the Island, and vision presentations.
Now, less than two weeks away from the election, while Shammi Silva camp is claiming to get more than 130 votes out of 144, Mathivanan camp is looking the options for a respectable exit! Competing Shammi Silva camp in the election was never on Mathivanan’s and Co agenda! Instead, they were relying on exploiting the shortcomings of ousted board president’s previous tenure! Then, a ‘backdated gazette notification’ episode gave them a hope to halt the election. The gazette was issued on March 29, dated February 15, which made the former SLC Executive Committee legal as they have submitted the audited accounts on February 25.
A strong political message faded those hopes also!
“One of country’s leading businessman (also a former SLC administrator) called Mathivanan camp and conveyed political message to not go to the court against backdated gazette notification” an insider at Mathivanan camp told Cricket Age.
Now, Mathivanan camp plan to meet Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa before deciding future strategy.
“They are hoping to meet Honorable Minister this week. Then only, they think whether to withdraw or not” the insider added.
On May 6, Cricket Age had exclusively published that the agenda of the 20th May election is to choose 7 office bearers. Other Committees like tournament committee, umpires committee, tour organizing committee members and its chairman will be elected at the AGM. As per the Sports Law of the country and SLC constitution, once the secretary is in place, he will call the AGM.
“As there is no elected body at Maitland Place, the AGM can’t be held. In 2019 also, it was same when Mr. Shammi Silva led administration was elected on 21st February. Later, board AGM took place on May 20” a top SLC official had told Cricket Age.
