Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will oppose the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) proposed finance and governance proposal that will hand the boards of India, Australia and England wide, controlling powers of world cricket and its finances.
The decision was reached after considering the opinion of its legal expert who had suggested that SLC should oppose the move as a whole or individually as it was against the fundamental principles of the ICC.
SLC together with South Africa Cricket and Pakistan Cricket Board vehemently oppose the hasty move by the big three and asked for time to study the proposal before a vote is taken.
After going through the detailed study of the Revised Position Paper forwarded by SLC’s legal expert, the EX-Co met with all its stakeholders–including past captains, presidents, secretaries, cub representatives and sports ministry representatives yesterday–to inform them of their decision to oppose the controversial proposal.
Among the attendees at yesterday’s meeting were former presidents Thilanga Sumathipala, Vijaya Malalasekara, former secretaries Neil Perera, Anura Tennakoon, Adel Hasheem, Kushil Gunasekara and past captains Hashan Thilakeratne and Aravinda Silva and a host of representatives from controlling clubs who had endorsed the decision taken by the SLC.
“Revised proposals put forward by the ICC, the views of the legal advisory committee, and the financial evaluations were taken into consideration and discussed in detail,” SLC said in a media release. “The views of the Executive Committee were expressed based on the above. It was explained at this meeting that the SLC Executive Committee was firmly of the view that all endeavors should be made to safe guard the current rights and privileges of Sri Lanka Cricket as a Full Member of the ICC. All present at this meeting were in unanimous agreement with the decision taken by the Executive Committee to oppose the Revised Proposals.”
SLC will officially communicate its decision through a formal letter to ICC today.
The ICC Executive Committee will meet on February 8 in Singapore and is expected to take the proposal for vote. With Bangladesh siding with the big three, having initially opposed it, the proposal needs one of the three opposing nations to vote in favour of it in order to pass the vicious proposal.
The proposed changes will hand the powers of controlling world cricket to the boards of just three countries–India, England and Australia–based on their current financial contribution to the game, ignoring the input of other boards. They will be taken up for vote on Saturday in Singapore at an Executive Board meeting of the ICC where SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga, vice president Mohan de Silva and treasurer Nuski Mohammed expect to represent Sri Lanka. SLC president Jayantha Dharmadasa has opted himself out of the meeting.
