No-balls and body line bowling during cricket rumpus in Parliament
The many twists and turns regarding investigations by Parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) into Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) culminated on Friday with the abrupt suspension of all COPE meetings until further notice.
Friday’s announcement by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena that COPE meetings will be suspended until an investigation into matters raised by MPs had been completed, capped a bizarre few days since SLC officials were summoned before COPE chaired by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Parliamentarian Prof. Ranjith Bandara on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s COPE meeting was highly contentious, as COPE members jumped at the chance to grill SLC President Shammi Silva and other officials over the Special Audit report into the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia and other issues pertaining to SLC.
However, it was in the days following the appearance of SLC officials that things really escalated. COPE proceedings are televised and footage emerged on Wednesday appearing to show Prof. Bandara gesturing to someone via hand signal to remain quiet. Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa alleged in Parliament that the COPE Chairman’s hand signal had been directed to SLC officials asking them to refrain from disclosing information to certain questions.
“By using such a hand signal, the COPE Chairman is directly or indirectly influencing witnesses who are giving evidence before his Committee. This is a serious matter,” Mr Premadasa said, urging the Speaker to conduct an investigation.
In COPE, Opposition members said they no longer had any confidence in Prof. Bandara to function as Committee Chair and demanded he either step down or for measures be taken to remove him.
In his defence, Prof. Bandara claimed his hand signal was meant for COPE members, who were speaking over each other, to speak one at a time.
Worse was to follow. Footage also emerged showing Prof. Bandara’s son, Kanishka Bandara, sitting in during the hearing with SLC. Both Mr Premadasa and other Opposition MPs questioned how he came to be there given that outsiders were not permitted to attend COPE meetings. It was disclosed that the COPE Chair’s son was attending the meetings in his capacity as Coordinating Secretary to his father.
No outsiders aside from COPE members and designated officials were permitted to attend such committee meetings. Prof. Bandara claimed his son had been given permission by Parliament authorities to access COPE Committee meetings since October 13, 2022.
However, while Parliament’s Department of Sergeant-at-Arms could grant approval for someone to access the Parliament complex, it could not decide who attends committee meetings. That authority rests with the Committee Chairman, and the allegation is that Prof. Bandara used his position as COPE Chair to allow his son to sit in at committee meetings.
Prof. Bandara was also facing accusations that he did not disclose a conflict of interest given that he had once served as a Consultant to SLC. After this information came to light in Parliament, SLC issued a statement that the Colombo School of Business and Management headed by Prof. Bandara had drafted a concept paper for a proposed SLC University from 2017 to 2018 during the time Thilanga Sumathipala was SLC President. The statement added that while SLC had paid the institution for its consultancy services during this period, it did not make any separate payment to Prof. Bandara.