Tourism Minister Harin Fernando told Parliament yesterday that all should get together to get the ICC cricket ban reversed.
He also said that if the International Cricket Council (ICC) does not lift the ban on Sri Lanka Cricket, Sri Lanka may lose the opportunity of hosting Under-19 Men’s World Cup scheduled to be held in January and February and as a result, about 800 tourists who are scheduled to visit Sri Lanka will not come to the country. Minister Fernando said this while speaking in Parliament regarding Cricket.
“The Opposition Leader spoke about cricket. During my tenure as the former Sports Minister, I changed procedures preventing those who are engaged in gambling from coming to cricket. At that time too, I was instructed to appoint an Interim Committee. If I had done that at that time, cricket would have definitely been banned. We have discussed with the ICC President on many occasions about Cricket.
I am not against Minister Roshan.I say the composition of cricket should change”.
“President Ranil Wickremesinghe had a discussion with Asian Cricket Council President Jay Shah on Thursday to discuss the cricket crisis in Sri Lanka. This is not a political crisis. It has become an international crisis now. We have to pay salaries for those who play cricket and even ground boys cannot be paid their salaries because of the ICC suspension. We all should come together in Parliament and solve this problem”. “I was also a Sports Minister.Today cricket is integrated with politics.Today, even the man who cuts the grass in the SSC has no way to get his salary due to this suspension.
Irangika Range