Suspended Sri Lanka Cricket to introduce new law to curb political interference

Colombo: Suspended by the ICC for "political interference", Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will soon introduce a new law to curb meddling of any sorts by people with considerable influence in the corridors of power.

A cabinet sub-committee appointed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe last November reported back to him on Monday with the necessary recommendations.

The sub-committee was appointed after the then Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe moved to form an interim panel to run SLC in a blatant violation of the ICC's governance rules for member nations.

The ICC promptly suspended SLC, leading to shifting of the Under-19 World Cup this month to South Africa.

Wickremesinghe sacked Ranasinghe and his successor, Harin Fernando, and later overturned the interim committee, leaving the elected administration of Shammi Silva intact.

During the crisis Wickremesinghe said he would draft a new sports law which would replace the 1973 law that had given powers to the sports minister to appoint interim committees.

Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, who headed the cabinet committee, said they had reviewed the current composition and structure of SLC to propose reforms.

The beleaguered sports body that acquired a prominent place since the country's triumph in the 1996 World Cup has seen many administrators scrambling for high positions, leading to the formation of several interim committees through political interference while violating the ICC rules.

It is often alleged that the current voting structure for office bearers facilitates vote buying.

The committee had probed the reasons behind Sri Lanka's poor position in international rankings currently and had identified ways to revamp the game at school, district and provincial levels, a release said.