The Association of Cricket Umpires Sri Lanka which was established in 1944 is undergoing the worst crisis in its 74 years history.
The ACUSL was formed with the intention of bringing a conformity to the game of cricket by the gentlemen who played cricket at the highest level like S P Foenander, Dodwell Zoysa, Athas Kuthoos to name a few.
There were many break-a-ways after the formation of the Association but never lasted long and they rejoined the parent group without any pre condition. The last to do it was late Upali Mahanama in the early 80’s who reconciled the two break-a-way groups which comprised umpires of the caliber of K T Ponnambalam, D C Cammilus Perera, Vernon Tissera, Royle Barthelot, Gilbert Perera, Stanley Kuruppu, M D D N Gunaratne, Basil Anthony, P W Vidanagamage, Granville Hamer, Willie Wimalaratne, S Ponnadurai, K T Francis, Allen Felsinger, Herbie Felsinger, R Nadarajah, J M C Jayasinghe, M A Jayasinghe, Leslie Saverimuttu and Sarath Weerasuriya who were all first class umpires and office bearers of the Association.
This trend was followed upto 2010 where the first class umpires of Sri Lanka Cricket and senior members of ACUSL namely D M H Dissanayake, Neil Rodrigo, Thassim Junkeer, D A S Dissanayake, Saman Amarasinghe, Dickie Dunuwilla, E K G Wijewardena, R Chelvaratnam, D N Pathirana and B C Cooray were managing the administration of the association.
During the year 2010 due to some disagreement in forming a welfare branch in Colombo the association broke into three sections and still functioned separately. A former president with the assistance of the Sports Minister was trying their best to amalgamate all these associations to one in the interest of cricket and umpiring in Sri Lanka but as the demands of the break-a-way groups could not be met it went back to square one.
At present the main body of the ACUSL is without a President, a General Secretary, two Vice Presidents and an Assignment Secretary. The President, Two Vice Presidents and Secretary have resigned whereas the elected Assignment Secretary is unable to do his work as he is a coach of a leading school in Colombo for the last five years. Assignments are being handled by his assistant who was barred for five years by Sri Lanka Cricket from Umpiring and Cricket related matters.
The Under 19 SLSCA matches were also assigned to the SLSCA Tournament Secretary. Many Under 19 Division 1 schools were not happy with this arrangement as anything could have happened in crucial matches where their schools were involved.
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