Sports
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screams 'umpire hora' Speaking at a hastily organized news conference at the Cricket Board Headquarters President of Sri Lanka Cricket Mohan de Silva said: "We are greatly disappointed and equally angry and sad that the sports minister has taken a unilateral decision citing baseless reasons and suspending Sri Lanka Cricket. We strongly believe that the Minister has been misled by certain people (with vested interest) who have painted a different picture . In fact it is very unfortunate that this has been the culture of Sri Lanka Cricket, whenever there is an election coming up, these unforeseen events come up". Sports Minister Jeevan Kumaratunge by virtue of the powers vested in him issued a gazette notification on Thursday suspending until further notice the registration of Sri Lanka Cricket. A letter to this effect was received by Sri Lanka Cricket yesterday morning and according to Mohan de Silva, SLC will reply the letter requesting the sports minister for a meeting to clear the air and lift the suspension. Speaking further De Silva said "It is sad that the Minister has taken this decision without even giving us a hearing, thus violating the cardinal principle of natural justice. Moreover the allegations made by the Minister citing financial misappropriation and mismanagement of funds is very disturbing". A visibly angry De Silva referring to his members in the executive board added, "We are all business people who work in the corporate world. We cannot allow an individual to make such remarks. This is why we need to clear the air and clear our name. For this reason we will be asking the Minister to give us a hearing and listen to our side of the story". SLC also vehemently denied the Ministers allegations that SLC will go bankrupt in six months from today if it is not suspended. "This is a baseless allegation. We have secured a US $52 million TV deal for the next four years and are poised to finalize a US $ 5 million team sponsorship in the next few weeks. All this will ensure that SLC will end up with a nett surplus of over 70 million in the next financial year". Outlining reasons as to why SLC had a 320 million deficit in the last financial year treasurer Nuski Mohamed said, "It is not unusual. This has happened in the past as well (2002 -net minus of 288 million). It depends on a multitude of factors among which the number of tours by foreign teams, especially India is of paramount importance". Mohamed also attributed last year's 320 million deficit to a number of factors such as not receiving US $ 2.5 million from last years Asia Cup due to the WSG Nimbus issue (which again was due to the fault of a previous interim committee decision) and the adjustment of the current account (293 million) maintained between ICC and SLC on world cup revenues. When asked by the media if the Deputy Minister of tourism was behind the sports minister, Silva replied with a wry smile saying "You have the facts in front of you, Its best that you make the judgement "However Assistant Treasurer Trevor Rajaratnam answering a question about Thilanga Sumathipala's re-election and SLC' suspension hit the nail right on the head when he said, "I believe Thilanga is a moving target and all of us who are associated with him get gunned down" In conclusion Rajaratnam pleaded saying, "If individuals have a personal vendetta against anyone, it should be sorted out separately and not at the expense of Sri Lanka Cricket or else how do we expect Cricket in our country to move forward?" Despite being suspended Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will hold their Annual General Meeting and the Election of Office Bearers as scheduled today in the morning at the SLC headquarters,Maitland Place. |
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