It’s our job to get the best out of players -Nishantha
The regulations say that we are disqualified if we were in a committee that was suspended under section 32 of the sports law
While their opponents prepare for a possible legal battle, the Jayantha Dharmadasa-led group that is seeking to form the leadership of the next Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) administration yesterday outlined their plans for governing the sport for the next two years.
A manifesto--the title of which translates to ‘Taking Sri Lanka Cricket on the right path’-proposes action in five key structures, to achieve the mission to “bring back the glory years of cricket to Sri Lanka,” and fulfil its vision of making cricket the “pride of the Sri Lankan people”.
Whether these plans will be what shapes the sport in the coming years will be decided by the SLC membership on February 21 at its elections, but the group’s chances were spurred by the disqualification of two rival candidates Mohan de Silva and Ravinwickramaratne by a Sports Minister-appointed Advisory Committee to hear appeals related to the elections.
The two rejected candidates have said they will challenge what they called an unfair disqualification, based on a gazette issued by former Sports Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga in 2005 that suspended a SLC committee at the time that was presided over by de Silva, in court.
Section 5(4)g of the Sports Law states that those who are a part of committees suspended under Section 32 of the Sports Law are ineligible to contest at elections to become office bearers of any national sports associations registered to the Ministry of Sports.
De Silva and Wickramaratne have argued that Dharmadasa and Nishantha Ranatunga– contesting as a member of Dharmadasa’s group-had also been members of committees that were suspended under Section
32 of the Sports Law.
Dharmadasa rebuffed de Silva’s claim saying that even though their appointments had been cancelled in 2015, it did not mean they were ineligible to contest.
“The regulations say that we are disqualified if we were in a committee that was suspended under section 32 of the sports law. We were not suspended, our term was over and the then-sports Minister decided [after cancelling the previous appointments] to appoint an interim committee,” Dharmadasa said.
The five key structures being proposed by the Dharmadasagroup will bring focus on international cricket, school cricket, national cricket, districts and provinces and finance. Another one of the immediate challenges, the manifesto stated, would be to support the national cricketers ‘to hold focus on the game without any undue pressure’, but Nishantha said it was still necessary to put pressure on certain cricketers.
“As administrators it’s our job to get the best out of players. There are certain players who you need to put pressure [on] to get the best out of them and there are certain players who you could guide and get the best out of. So as administrators we have different strategies to manage different people, at the end of the day we don’t want to be the most popular administrators,” Nishantha said.
“Personally as an individual I don’t want to be the most popular administrator among the cricketers. There has to be a distance with the cricketers if you want to administrate your cricket properly. So as an administrator we will decide and analyse whom we should pressure on and whom, we should get best without putting pressure,” he also said.
Minister Arjuna Ranatunga, also contesting as part of the group, will be a key force in the new administration, if elected, taking on more than the development of schools cricket as initially intended.
He said that the decision to contest the elections came as a result of what he observed of the previous administration.
“Even though I believed that when the unity government was formed that cricket would be developed, it wasn’t the case. I decided to stay out of cricket until the elections, but many people have criticised me for not doing anything for cricket [in the last few years]. I was initially hoping to foster school cricket, but with the World Cup around the corner I was asked to look after international cricket as well,” the former World Cup winning captain said.
“It is not something I can do alone so I have spoken to several former cricketers who have pledged their support and that is one of the reasons I was compelled to contest the elections,” he also said.
“Winning the World Cup this year will be difficult but my goal is to see Sri Lanka qualify for the knockout round.”
Minister Ranatunga said he would guarantee that money at SLC will be utilised properly and that he would expose those who have engaged in financial corruption over the last few years.
“I know for sure the money will be safe [in our administration], which has been used corruptly in the last so many years. As a Vice President I will show the entire country what has happened in the last few years,” he also said.