Officially Thilanga Sumathipala is former Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) President. Unofficially, he still runs the SLC. Officially, Country’s Sports Minister Appointed a Competent Authority to run the SLC. Unofficially, that Competent Authority has turned as an ‘Incompetent Authority’ and has given all the rights to run the SLC to a ‘certain camp’. Officially, as a former President Sumathipala must keep a distance with board affairs. Unofficially, people’s like Sri Lanka U19 Coach Hashan Tillakaratne and Chief Selector Graeme Labrooy Still Goes behind him for everything!
So, on Saturday, on the eve of the first ODI Between Sri Lanka and South Africa at Dambulla, Sumathipala made an ‘Unofficial’ trip of the stadium to insure everything is going according to plan!
He didn’t go alone, as he has a loyal team of those, who have destroyed Sri Lanka cricket big time with their respective acts in last two years. So, Saman Wathuregama (sack employee of SLBC – national radio channel for a fraud), Kamal Dharmasiri (SLC staff), Bandula Disanayaka (former chairman tournament committee), Crysantha Kapukotuwa (Wheller dealer), Sujeewa Godaliyadha (Who used to dominate the SLC at the time of Sumathipala), Aruna de Silva (SLC staff), Priyantha Soyza were also with him. Like a SLC President, Sumathipala went to Dambulla and ‘inspected everything’.
Whether ICC Allows this sort of roaming in and around the stadium few hours before an international match, is another thing to find out!
“As Per the ICC Rules, only Team Officials, Curators and match referee ate allowed into the stadium on the eve of an international match” a former SLC President told Cricket Age.
Whether SLC comes under this rule or not, everyone can see!
Another interesting thing is that Nishantha Ranatunga was not there, even though he is another stalwart of Sri Lanka Cricket like Sumathipala! Jayantha Dharmadasa and Sidath Wettimuny were also not there, even though they are also former SLC Presidents like Sumathipala. Maybe, they have the ethics to accept it that as they are not the part of the setup, they must not interfere. However, Sumathipala doesn’t believe in this theory. So, he was in and around Dambulla to make sure that everything is going according to plan!
There is another twist in the story though! SLC has made a turf wicket in Anuradhapura, few miles away from Dambulla. Sumathipala went there too and inaugurated the turf wicket. In entire Sri Lanka, SLC found only Sumathipala to inaugurate!
In between, SLC has granted a whopping 90 Million Rupees to Dambulla Stadium in the name of the upgradation. In another development, Sujeewa Godaliyadha has abducted all the complementary match tickets of the SLC staff for Tomorrow’s match. Between all these, there are prediction in Sri Lanka Cricket circuit that Dambulla Wicket is like ‘Winning the toss, winning the match.’
Sumathipala was in and around Dambulla to make sure that everything is going according to plan!
