The much awaited Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) election are unlikely to be postponed despite the claims by former President Thilanga Sumathipala’s side, Cricket Age reliably learns.
On Friday, just two weeks prior to SLC election, the Appeal Committee delivered a death blow to former SLC vice president Mohan De Silva and assistant secretary Ravin Wickramaratne by ruling that they are ineligible to contest the 2019 SLC election.
The decision had been taken considering an appeal which questions the eligibility of the said duo to contest, as both of them were in the SLC Executive Committee which was dissolved in March 2005 by the then Sports Minister, Jeewan Kumaratunga by issuing a Gazette notification, citing several financial irregularities and appointing an interim committee to the SLC.
In response, yesterday, both Mohan De Silva and Ravin Wickramaratne had claimed that they have become the victim of injustice and would challenge appeal committee decision into court. More importantly, both have claimed that because of this decision by the appeal committee, SLC election is in danger to be postponed again!
However, when Cricket Age inquired about the situation, it learnt that their claims are based on desperation!
Hearing a writ petition of former SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga in 2018, the appeal Court had given a roadmap to conduct the board election. The Sports Ministry followed the roadmap in conducting the upcoming election. In addition, the appeal committee has gone through all the documents, objections, submitted by both the camps – Jayantha Dharmadasa and Thilanga Sumathipala. Most importantly, the appeal committee itself consists retired judges of Supreme Court and appeal committee.
Also, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has already given the deadline of February 28th to SLC to conduct the election and send an elected administrator for his next meeting, to be held on March 2.
Considering all these scenarios, the postponement of SLC election seems a distant thing, as the appeal Court is very unlikely to give an interim injunction against the election. The election are scheduled for February 21.
