New SL Sports Minister to Appoint Interim Body to Run SLC

Colombo, Dec 21 (PTI) New Sports Minister of Sri Lanka Harin Fernando on Friday said he is looking to appoint an interim committee to run the nation's cricket board's (SLC) administration.

Fernando said he is ready to delay the February 7 election of SLC and would talk to the ICC on this matter.

"I am hoping to talk to the ICC on 26 and 27 December to see if they would agree to appointing an interim committee," Fernando said after assuming duties in his new position.

He said it was important for SLC to come under an interim committee until the governing body is cleared of all allegations of corruption by the ICC's anti-corruption unit.

The election was scheduled for February 7 by a politically appointed Competent Authority under Fernando's predecessor, Faizer Mustapha.

The election, which was due on May this year when the Thilanga Sumathipala administration ended its term, was not held as Mustapha opted to appoint his top ministry bureaucrat to run the SLC following a series of court cases challenging individual nominations.

The SLC's voting structure has been long seen as corrupt with allegations of vote buying sponsored by some of the top businessmen to win office in the island nation's richest sporting body.

Since October it was reported that the ICC had put Sri Lanka's alleged corruption in the game into close focus with investigations by a team of visiting investigators.

They had spoken to both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on the tainted names of both players and administrators.

Fernando just took office on Friday after the political and constitutional stand-off in the country ended after 50 days of turmoil.

The former SLC boss Thilanga Sumathipala, a parliamentarian with loyalties to Sirisena, was in the forefront of the alleged unconstitutional action by Sirisena to sack Wickremesinghe.

Sumathipala early this week said he would not run for SLC office again as he wanted to concentrate full time on his political career.

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