As a keen cricket fan supporting an elite club in Colombo as a member of it, my attention is drawn to a meaningful article that appeared in the Sunday Observer of the 6th instant under the name of Geoffrey Brohier which apparently was an eye opener to the new Sports Minister Harin Fernando.
As at present it is obvious that the SLC elections are hotting up with the two main rival sides led by Mohan de Silva, a former elected president of the SLC and Jayantha Dharmadasa also a former SLC president having press conferences throwing mud at each other for past abuses when in power.
Jayantha Dharmadasa was pointing out that Thilanga Sumathipala’s term, was full of corruption and he wrote twice to Sumathipala to remove the corrupt culprits to continue the good work for the SLC, but Sumathipala had not even replied his letters.
Taking a hard look at this I and my cricket mate’s wonder why Dharmadasa is bringing in Sumathipala to the contest when Sumathipala is not even contesting the post of president. If there were any corrupt practices during Sumathipala’s regime, surely Minister Faiszer Mustapha and his Competent Authority could have investigated and brought the culprits to book.
Let us not forget that Dharmadasa’s right hand now Nishantha Ranatunga was found guilty of supporting CSN TV when Nishantha was a Director of the CSN TV and have a court case in which Nishantha is an accused.
On the contrary Mohan alleges that Dharmadasa has no right to contest ‘coz he hasn’t played first class cricket. The question arises as to who the nominees for the post of president of the SLC which is now re-scheduled for the 21st of February 2019.
It is not yet clear as the Nomination Committee have still not declared candidates suitable fulfilling the requirements. However, if I have an impartial look at the three Mohan de Silva is a former cricketer of repute having turned out for the SSC in Premier League matches and is a strict disciplinarian who should be having a reliable competent team when you weigh the pros and cons between Dharmadasa and De Silva. Dharmadasa is also a clean man, fine administrator seems rather unfortunate not to have played first class cricket.
At this moment, the Sports Minister must not listen to tales from other quarters and should be tough and strong enough not to scramble with SLC elections, instead without recourse to unnecessary interference in cricket. As Geoffrey Brohier had written the Sports Minister Harin Fernando should be absolutely independent, impartial and respect the rights of the stakeholders by holding the SLC AGM as scheduled on 21st February 2019 and allow the stakeholders to elect the most suitable office bearers and the ExCo to take control of managing the affairs of SLC for the future.
Tissa Kapukotuwa
Negombo.
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