Corruption tainted cricket officials who have been told to move out following a wholehearted consensus reached in Parliament on Thursday by both the Opposition and Government have been directed to face an investigation body called the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) on November 14, its Chairman Prof. Ranjith Bandara said.
It follows the Opposition and ruling party MPs urging the Speaker of Parliament to summon cricket officials who have already been declared responsible for financial mismanagement and abuse of power according to a previous Probe Report that was compiled after the team’s debacle and misdeeds committed by Sri Lanka Cricket officials during the T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November 2022.
Meanwhile none of the cricket officials were at hand to welcome back the Sri Lanka team when they returned from the World Cup in India on Friday morning after losing seven of the nine matches and failing to secure a place in the semi finals.
Amid fears that the International Cricket Council (ICC) would suspend Sri Lanka Cricket if an Interim Committee is appointed to replace the current set of office bearers, Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe told Parliament on Friday that former captain Arjuna Ranatunga will be given the responsibility of rebuilding the management for a brief period.
“We will hand over the task of rebuilding Sri Lanka Cricket to former captain Arjuna Ranatunga for six to eight months if the ICC gets involved. We will enact the Sports Act and then go in for an election,” said Ranasinghe.
He was responding to a question raised by the leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa who has also been in the forefront of a major public campaign to clean up the cricket administration.
