Armed gang rob Matara SC, match with BRC called off

By Bernie Wijesekera

Matara SC, who travelled to Colombo to play their fixture against BRC, had a harrowing night after the first day's play (Friday) whilst resting in a restaurant in Mount Lavinia.

An armed gang had crashed into their motel, locked the entire team in a room and had plundered all their belongings including money.

They didn't stop there but took away with them the van they had travelled from Matara.

The team arrived at the grounds last morning and brought this to the notice of the BRC officials and the umpires. They said that they were not in a frame of mind to continue the game.

The Mt. Lavinia Police when contacted confirmed that a complaint was made by Matara SC where the visiting team had lost Rs. 50,000 in cash, besides the van,

Matara SC - 121 in 26.4 overs, 143 minutes (N. H. V. Chinthaka 36, N.P.Wickremasekera 14 n.o; Wendell Labrooy 13-0-83-0)

BRC - 211 for 4 at close on Friday (Sanjeewa Silva 22, C. Jayasinghe 33, Milinda Warnapurta 81 n.o (10 fours), Nisal Fernando 44 n.o (6 fours)

Kumar's 104 steers Bloomfield

A back-to-the-wall knock of 104 by Sri Lanka all-rounder Kumar Dharmasena (in 206 balls with 12 fours) salvaged Bloomfield to a close first innings points win over Sebastianites SC on day two of their Premier Trophy three-day tournament match continued at Reid Avenue yesterday.

At Reid Avenue: Bloomfield vs Sebastianites

Sebastianites SC - 229 for eight overnight contd. 258 in 103.5 overs (D. Fernando 50 n.o; Ruchira Palliyaguru 3 for 54, P. Wickremasinghe 2 for 41)

Bloomfield - 269 (D. Perera 45, Saman Jayantha 32, Kumar Dharmasena 104, B. de. Silva 24, P. Wickremasinghe 26 n.o; D. Fernando 4 for 74, C. Liyanage 3 for 31) (B.W)

Colts dominate

Colts showing all-round superiority dominated play to hold the whip hand over Moors on the second day in their Premier Trophy three-day match continued at Havelock Park yesterday.

At Havelock Park: Colts vs Moors

Colts CC - (263 for 8 overnight) contd. 291 in 106.3 overs (Eric Upashantha 49, S. Janaka 42, Dulip Liyanage 41; R. Priyadharshana 3 for 80, C. Hathurusinghe 3 for 67) and 62 for 2 in 18 overs at close (Dulip Samaraweera 42 n.o).

Moors SC - 173 in 50.3 overs (R. Priyadharshana 61, H. Tillekeratne 61, A. Ranaweera 17; Eric Upashantha 4 for 38, Dinuk Hettiarachchi 3 for 53). - (B.W)

SSC set for outright victory

By Marlon Fernandopulle

Dhrashana Gamage and Ranil Dhammika captured five wickets each to help SSC to be in contention for an easy outright victory against Tamil Union in their Premier League Inter Club game at Maitland Place yesterday.

Tamil Union-149 & 154 (Nuwan Shiroman 31, Gayan Wijeykoon 38; Drshana Gamage 5/53, Ranil Dhammika 5/45) SSC-126/5 overnight 185 (Upekha Fernando 53, Sanjeewa Ranatunge 29; Mario Villawarayen 3/50 Sanjeewa Jayaratne 2/32, Charinda Fernando 2/06) and 63/2 (Shantha Kalawitigoda 31, Upekha Fernando 16 n. o)

Polonowita helps CCC fight back

NCC 280/6 overnight - 336 (Ruwan Kalpage 45, Kaushalya Weeraratne 44, Susantha Pradeep 19; Chamikara Mudalige 5/99)

CCC-224/6 (M. Van Dort 22, Lanka de Silva 16, Bradman Ediriweera 23, Anushka Polonowita 71, Duncan Arnolda 28, Harith Jayasuriya 29; M I Abdeen 2/41, Susantha Pradeep 3/29)

Uphill task for Panadura

By Marcus Joseph

Panadura SC - 138(S.Jayewardena 38, S.Liyanage 19, R.Wimalasena 18; N.Soysa 4 for 24, A.Priyantha 2 for 19) and 46 for no loss(S.Jayewardena 27n.o, B.Perera 14n.o)

Police SC - 346 for 8 dec(A.SEnasinghe 72, Manohara Kudagodage 51n.o, R.Fernando 40, A.Priyantha 25, S.Silva 24, Chamara Silva 31, D.Nanayakkara 16n.o; K.Silva 3 for 66, C.Buddika 2 for 61)

Rienzie's reply to Thilanga

Herewith I am replying your long letter of December 3 which you caused to be published in several newspapers on Saturday the 4th and Sunday the 5th of December 1999.

Your letter is full of vituperative statements, personal abuse and observations on matters such as how Directors of companies behave.

It is obvious from the letter that though on the face of it, the letter is addressed to me with copies to Mr Skandakumar and Mr Dammika Ranatunga, it was really intended for the public and that you included in it, such a mass of extraneous matters, mainly to impress upon the public that you have a defensible position in what you refer to therein as "the unwarranted controversy".

However, a discerning reader who has the time to sift through the mass of verbiage that you have indulged in, will observe that the facts that emerge therefrom are indeed very few and those are:-

(a) That during your tenure of office BCCSL with the approval of its Executive Committee and the recommendation of its representative in Australia engaged a public relations firm and a law firm in Australia to perform certain services the scope of which was very large.

(b) By your letter of the 27th November 1998, you notified the Sri Lanka High Commissioner in Australia of the engagement of these two firms and copied it to the public relations firm, the law firm and the BCCSL represenlative in Australia.

You found that the fees for the services rendered by the public relations firm in November and December 1998, amounted to Australian Dollars 796/38 and 576/76 respectively.

(d) When the public relations firm rcquested fees amounting to Australian Dollars 70,803.26 for additional services rendered in January and February 1999, you considered it high and requested the BCCSL representative in Australia to query the same and seek clarification and he in turn informed you that he can try to do so through the law firm who had requested the services.

(e) You received the fax of 15th July 1999, addressed to you by which your advise was sought on the invoice and letters and addressed to me and Mr Skandakumar by the public relations firm copies of which were sent to you along with such fax.

(f) You responded thereto by re-faxing that letter to the Board with the following endorsement:

"I have never asked for this facility. It is better for you to get Mr Ranjith Fernando to clarify the matter since he was the Manager then".

The above facts that emerged from your long letter incontrovertibly demonstrates that you acted maliciously when the Interim Board requested your advise on the request made by the public relations firm for payment of their fees.

At the time the request was made, the Interim Board did not have any material whatever on which they could consider the request for payment of fees made by the public relations firm.

Your response to the request made in those circumstances, to say the least, was not "in the best interest of Sri Lanka cricket". The animosity that you have towards the members of the Interim Board, as you have viciously demonstrated by your letter have caused you to act maliciously in the so-called unwarranted controversy much to the detriment of national cricket and in turn to our nation itself.

Further, until you wrote your letter under reply dated 3rd December, which you simultaneously released to the media, you did not respond to my letter of the 7th Octobcr.

I stated therein that we have since receiving your aforementioned response received from the public relations firm, a copy of the letter you wrote to the High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in Australia dated 27th November 1998, and that Mr Ranjith Fernando had denied any knowledge of an arrangement with the public relations firm. I therefore also stated in my letter of the 7th October that I will welcome your response and that as court action seemed imminent, your early attention will be appreciated.

Despite the above, you did not make any response to my request for more than two months, until you did so by the letter dated 3rd December which you wrote for release to the media.

I will not respond at this stage to the extraneous matters contained in your letter. The public will in due course make their own judgement on your claims and your barrage of personal abuse against us.

Rienzie T. Wijetilleke Chairman - Interim Committee

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