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by Dinesh Weerawansa

The aspirations and long-standing demands of the member Clubs and associations of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka will finally be fulfilled as Sri Lanka's cricket will get a democratically elected governing body.

The Interim Committees which manned the BCCSL for over three years since 1999 will come to an end when the AGM and fresh elections to the BCCSL will be held at the auditorium of the National Sports Institute at 10.30 a.m. today. The fresh cricket board elections will be conducted by the Director General of Sports, Milton Amarasinghe as interim administrations existed for the last two successive years.

All key executive committee posts of the BCCSL will be uncontested today, except for the most demanding one - the presidency. Three candidates will be contesting for the top seat of country's richest sports governing body. The real race will be between two-time President and Sri Lanka Telecom Chairman, Thilanga Sumathipala and former Sri Lanka captain and PA Parliamentarian, Arjuna Ranatunga. The third candidate for the presidency - Mohan de Silva, is the nominee for the Secretary from the Sumathipala camp.

Both Sumathipala (Nalanda) and Ranatunga (Ananda) are products of two of Sri Lanka's leading Buddhist schools and have been close associates a couple of years back. But after some dramatic turns, the two are now gearing for the top tussle. Both of them have earned hearts of the people in their respective trades.

Sumathipala has earned a reputation and respect as two-time President of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) and former President of the Asian Cricket Council. A man with a vision, Sumathipala has won the hearts of provincial and outstation Clubs as a successful cricket administrator. Similarly, Ranatunga has been a cricketer per excellence as Sri Lanka's most successful cricket captain ever. Playing 93 Tests for Sri Lanka and scoring over 5,000 runs and aggregating over 7,000 runs in 269 one day internationals.

More importantly, Sri Lanka won the 1996 World Cup and many other tournaments under his able leadership. With the cricket administration going to the hands of an interim committees Sumathipala concentrated as a career entrepreneur and Ranatunga took to politics after retirement. Both started new careers after the 2001 general election.

Sumathipala was made Chairman of the Sri Lanka Telecom after playing a key role for the United National Front Government's victory and Ranatunga made his debut in politics and won people's mandate to become a Colombo District MP from the People's Alliance.

Sumathipala will be at full force at the election with a well-knit team, which will win all other posts today, uncontested. Unlike Sumathipala, Ranatunga will be batting on his own, just contesting only for presidency without a group as such. More than 60 of the 87 clubs, associations and affiliated bodies with voting rights have already given their executive committee mandates to vote for Sumathipala but what Ranatunga's trump cards are yet to be seen.

The posts which will be uncontested at today's BCCSL elections will be Aravinda de Silva and A.J.M. Muzzamil (for two Vice President posts), Mohan de Silva (Secretary), Lal Nanayakkara (Treasurer), Trevor Rajaratnam (Asst. Secretary) and Leucine Merinage (Asst. Treasurer).

Sumathipala looked a confident man on the eve of the elections. "A majority of clubs have given mandates to vote for me. I am confident of securing more than two thirds of votes," Sumathipala said. He added his first task will be to get a top international class professional coach for Sri Lanka national team and to get the national team going. "We have to reinstate the BCCSL and work hard to uplift Sri Lanka cricket. I invite all cricket loving personalities to join hands and work towards that goal.," he said. Sumathipala said USD 11 million claimed by WMG Nimbus over a television rights dispute will be the toughest financial problem the new ex-co is going to face. But he expressed confidence in coming to a settlement with the television company through negotiations.

Ranatunga was not available for comment yesterday, though we made desperate attempts to get through to him. But during his recent press conference, Ranatunga said he came forward to eliminate corruption and make cricket board a clean place. "Many former and present cricketers have expressed support for me once I get elected. I want to give something back to cricket," he said.

However, Ranatunga admitted winning the BCCSL election is not an easy task. Let the 87 member clubs and Associations of the BCCSL, which has total of 147 votes, express their democratic right to elect a suitable leader to drive Sri Lanka cricket to greater heights.

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