ICC Suspends Sri Lanka Cricket’s Membership

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ICC determined that Sri Lanka Cricket is in serious breach of its obligations as a Member.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that they have suspended Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership of the board with immediate effect due to government interference. The Sri Lanka government sacked the SLC following the team’s underwhelming show in the World Cup where they failed to reach the semis and lost seven of the nine games. SLC was reinstated by the court of appeal, thus further deepening the crisis in the country’s cricket governing body.

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“The ICC Board met today and determined that Sri Lanka Cricket is in serious breach of its obligations as a Member, in particular, the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration of cricket in Sri Lanka,” ICC stated.

Meanwhile, the conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC Board in due course.

Earlier, Sri Lanka sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe accused the board of widespread corruption. He sacked the elected members on Monday and replaced them with an interim committee headed by former skipper Arjuna Ranatunga. He mandated the new board to clean up the system and bring in accountability.

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Arjuna Ranatunga has earlier been the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board. In recent times, he has often attacked the SLC for its alleged corruption and nepotism.

The appeal court restored the original board for two weeks on Tuesday pending a full hearing.

Ranasinghe told parliament on Tuesday that fraud at the board ran into millions of dollars.

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He said he would rather resign than go back on his decision to sack the board, accusing President Ranil Wickremesinghe of trying to defend corrupt officials.

The government, which is split over the minister’s decision to sack the SLC board of management, came out with a report, recommending a brand new constitution for the governing body with a new voting structure to appoint office bearers.