In another scathing attack on incumbent president of Sri Lanka Cricket who is also the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thilanga Sumathipala, Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment and Welfare Ranjan Ramanayake said that he plans to file a case against Sumathipala as he is not qualified to hold the post of president of SLC.
“Sumathipala cannot contest the cricket board elections. I claim that the election of the cricket board that is to be held on May 31 is illegal. We hope to launch a protest with regard to this,” said Ramanayake at special press conference held at his Madiwala Parliamentary quarters yesterday.
“We are disappointed that world cricket stars like A.B de Villiers and Virat Kohli have derided our country in a television program.
We have dropped to 9th place from 1st in T20 cricket. Sumathipala speaks only about profit- making. If we had been able to preserve the quality of our cricket, we could have derived more profits than what he claims we have made,” he said.
Speaking further Ramanayake said, “There are two other clauses that would make Sumathipala ineligible for the SLC presidency.
An individual who has ‘four years prior to the submission of nominations, been engaged in selling or supplying sports goods, sports gear or any item or equipment relating to such sport to such National Association of Sports’ and if ‘he is directly or indirectly involved in carrying out the business of gaming, betting or wagering’, he is ineligible to contest. Didn’t the former Sports Minister (Dayasiri Jayasekera) know all this?”
Ramanayake further said that he is not seeking popularity by speaking of corruption in Sri Lanka Cricket and added: “I am an actor by profession and I have the right to raise my voice against corruption as a publicly elected representative.
I was elected by the people of Sri Lanka as a member of parliament and I wasn’t rejected by the people at the last election like Sumathipala.
In every country their respective Cricket Boards are administered by gentlemen but not in Sri Lanka where all corrupted people stick with SLC for their own personnel benefits.”
“I am also one of the ordinary fans of cricket among the millions of people in the country who has a basic knowledge of cricket.
I am a representative of the people. Wherever I go to contest an election, people elect me with their preferential votes.
They have sent me here to talk about the issues with public interest. I am bound to solve their problems,” Ramanayake said. He challenged Sumathipala to answer his allegations.
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De Villiers, Kohli deride Sri Lanka cricket
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s key players Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Yuzvendra Chahal in a chat with presenters Tanmay Bhatt and Gursimran Khamba of the All India Bakchod (AIB) podcast titled ‘Behind the Stumps’ derided the standard of Sri Lanka cricket.
Here’s how it went:
Presenters: One request from us as a cricket fan when will we stop playing Sri Lanka aren’t you bored? How much are you going to play them?
De Villiers: That’s become the off-season.
Presenters: We have two days to go to Goa it has come like that.
Kohli: You count it as off season because the time difference is half an hour.
De Villiers: You never lose to them so it’s off season.
Kohli: I mean yeah, I can’t say much at this point.
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