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Cricket Board elections on June 6

by Dinesh Weerawansa

The much looked-forward to elections of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka will be held on June 6.

Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Johnston Fernando yesterday decided to hold fresh elections which has been managed by an interim council administration for over three years under four successive sports Ministers.

The fresh Board AGM will be held before June 10. Since the appointment of the 1999 interim council, the BCCSL has not been run by democratically appointed members, except for a brief period in 2000. S.B. Dissanayake, Lakshman Kiriella, Mangala Samaraweera and Johnston Fernando served as Sports Ministers during this period upto 2003.

The interim council of the BCCSL has been widely criticised for various reasons and the clubs and associations affiliated to the BCCSL have been demanding that they be given a democratically elected body, which is answerable to the general membership.

Though the interim council was appointed to man Sri Lanka cricket with the intention of putting local cricket administration on correct lines for the 2003 World Cup preparations, the interim body failed to live up to expectations and aspirations of the cricket-loving public and clubs.

Minister Johnston Fernando, in an exclusive interview with the 'Daily News' yesterday, said the decision to conduct fresh elections for the BCCSL will fulfil the pledge given to have a democratically elected body after the 2003 World Cup. "If we had removed the interim administration when our Government took office, the critics would have said that we are making way for former President Thilanga Sumathipala to take the top post. We did not want to hamper the decision taken earlier to have an interim administration until the World Cup is over. But now that the World Cup is over, we decided to have board elections," Minister Fernando said.

He said the national team did well to go up to the semi-finals of the recent World Cup in South Africa, despite the critics. "We had a poor World Cup defence in 1999, where we even could not go beyond the first round. But this time, we made it to the last four at a time when top teams like South Africa failed to impress," he pointed out. Minister Fernando thanked the interim administration for their contribution during their office.

Under the powers vested in him by the Sports Act of 1973, Minister Fernando has directed the Director General of Sports, Milton Amarasinghe to make arrangements to conduct the elections to the BCCSL. Accordingly, the Director General of Sports will shortly write to all member/affiliated clubs and associations of the BCCSL tomorrow informing the date fixed for the Annual General Meeting and election of office bearers for 2003/4, which is likely to be in the first weekend of next month.

The membership is given a minimum of one month's notice on the AGM of the BCCSL. The Director General of Sports will also call for nominations for the election of office bearers and the membership is given two weeks' time to send in their nominations.

The Director General of Sports, Amarasinghe will be assisted by a team from his Sports Department in conducting the AGM and counting of ballots. Once the office bearers are elected, he will hand over the administration of the BCCSL to the new President-elect and his executive committee.

This will be the second time that Amarasinghe is conducting an election of this nature to the BCCSL having done so three years ago. The ugly power struggle drama at the BCCSL, which led to many court cases and interim councils originally started in 1999. Following a controversial election in 1999, the BCCSL was suspended by a Colombo District Court in June, 1999 for the second time in as many months, compounding the humiliation of the national team's early exit from the World Cup tournament in England.

The 1999 BCCSL AGM and elections were marred with some ugly and unruly incidents as Thilanga Sumathipala was elected President. It was promptly challenged by a group led by defeated presidential candidate Clifford Ratwatte. A popular figure in the promotion of outstation cricket, Sumathipala had a landslide victory for presidency in 1999, polling 79 votes to Ratwatte's 11.

A court lifted the suspension of Sumathipala and his team of office bearers on April 26, 1999 after the Sri Lankan team left for England to defend the country's World Cup crown won in 1996. The court in early June, 1999 ordered the minister to appoint an interim body to run the affairs of the cricket board until the case against Sumathipala is heard

On June 12, 1999, Managing Director of Hatton National Bank, Rienzie T. Wijetilleke was appointed the chairman of the new BCCSL Interim committee named by Minister Dissanayake. Reputed former Sri Lanka cricketers Michael Tissera, Sidat Wettimuny and Asantha de Mel were among the others named in the interim administration.

But after an year in office, Wijetillake's interim administration resigned en masse in June 3, 2000. Cricket officials accused Minister Dissanayake of interference in the board's day to day functioning.

A man with a vision, Sumathipala was re-elected President when the fresh elections we held in June 11, 2000 but he had to face some bitter experience when the new Sports Minister Lakshman Kiriella dissolved the BCCSL in March, 2001.

Minister Kiriella dissolved the cricket board after they failed to have the Colombo District Court lift an earlier court order preventing the Board from holding the Annual General Meeting.

He then appointed an interim committee headed by Vijaya Malalasekera and as in the previous interim, included former national cricketers. But the Malalasekera administration too failed to contribute anything worthy to Sri Lanka cricket and the new UNF Government Sports Minister Johnston Fernando replaced Malalasekera with Singer Sri Lanka chairman Hemaka Amarasuriya, who is holding the post to date.

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