In a hair –raising development the head of the Parliamentary Committee probing public corruption known as COPE, has so far turned a blind eye to summoning the hierarchy of Sri Lanka Cricket despite a group of MPs calling for the probe thereby creating more questions than answers.
Opposition Parliamentarian Hesha Vithanage has been in the forefront of a clean-up at Sri Lanka Cricket receiving the support of ruling party MPs and the call to summon cricket officials to answer for financial malpractices during the T20 World Cup in Australia last October-November has now fallen on deaf ears, it is learnt.
MP Hesha Vithanage
Parliament is expected to bring up the failure of COPE to summon cricket officials at a debate scheduled for this week, it is further learnt.
“There has been a lapse on the part of COPE to summon cricket officials and the matter will be once again brought up in Parliament either this week or next week”, an Opposition MP said.
He said both the Opposition and the government had found common ground to come together to put an end to corruption in cricket and clean up the mess with time running out as the Sri Lanka team currently contesting the World Cup in India suffered a second humiliating defeat at the hands of Pakistan on Tuesday night despite having a 344 total to defend.
Last week the probe Report on the financial misdeeds at the T20 World Cup conducted by the government along with the National Audit Report was handed over to the Special Investigative Unit for Sports Offences by the Sports Ministry for further scrutiny.
The Report was compiled in April this year by a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena.
