SLC now entangled in rooms pose
The hosting of the second Test between Sri Lanka and England in Pallekele now hangs in the balance due to overbooking of the team hotel in Kandy.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) made a reservation in April for 80 rooms for members of the two competing teams at Earl’s Regency, a five star facility in close proximity to the ground. The hotel is managed by Aitken Spence. The rooms were been booked from November 11-18.
However, the hotel has accepted more bookings than the 104 rooms available, triggering a fresh headache for the board which is already dealing with many issues including a massive attempted fraud amounting to millions of dollars.
Cricket officials expressed confidence they can solve the matter in time for the second Test. “I don’t think we will have an issue,” said CEO Ashley de Silva. “We have made our bookings well in advance and we expect those 80 rooms to be available for the two teams during the entire period.”
De Silva said they will not shift the venue for any reason other than bad weather and that, too, is unlikely at this stage.
Sources said that the hotel operator is now exploring all possibilities including shifting an entire team to a location in Matale. International Cricket Council (ICC) regulations allows a maximum of 45 minutes from the place of accommodation to the ground.
Sources said the hotel is currently offering lucrative packages to some the guests to move out of the hotel during the period. “This was highly irresponsible of the hotel management,” a tourism industry source, said on condition of anonymity. “These are two national teams and they should not have accepted any other bookings after teams confirmed their stay.”
The Sunday Times contacted Ranil de Silva, the Jt Managing Director of the Aitken Spence Hotels (which manages the hotel) but he politely refused to comment.
Meanwhile, SLC this week sacked its official hospitality partner for the ongoing limited over series after a mid-match raid by the country’s excise agents. The Board said its hospitality partner, Classic Destination, did not obtain the necessary licences to serve hard liquor at the ground.
“As the firm has failed to act within the law… and bringing disrepute to Sri Lanka Cricket, SLC decided to immediately terminate Classic Destination from delivering further hospitality services during the England tour,” the Board said in a statement Thursday. The incident, which occurred just few days after London-based ‘Lonely Planet’ named Sri Lanka as the best travel destination in 2019, left a bad taste with tourists who have flocked here in numbers to support the England team.
“If the Excise Department knew of an illegal activity, what they should have done was to advise them not to do that or take relevant permissions rather than damaging the image of the country by raiding,” a cricket official said.
This was not the first controversy of the series,with England fans complaining of exorbitant ticket prices even though they are the same for locals and foreigners. It was only bundled packages with food, drinks and grandstand tickets which were sold at a high price. But England fans, known as the Barmy Army, described it as a rip-off and asked SLC to lower charges.