England warned over ‘coup’ protest
England’s cricketers have been warned to expect a large political demonstration today, protesting against what is widely seen as a coup in Sri Lanka, on the first day of their two warm-up matches for the opening Test on Nov 6.
The British High Commission, which is keeping the England players closely informed, has told them to expect the demonstration to attract about 15,000 protesters while they are playing in Colombo.
The demonstration is scheduled to take place more than two miles away from the venue in Maitland Crescent where England are playing at Nondescripts Cricket Club. The demonstrators are due to meet outside Temple Trees, the residence of Sri Lanka’s prime minister, which is on the same street as the England team hotel, the Shangrila, albeit nearly one mile away.
Longer queues than normal at petrol stations have been reported since prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was deposed by president Maithripala Sirisena last weekend, but only one major outbreak of violence so far, when the former captain of Sri Lanka, Arjuna Ranatunga, was arrested after his security guards killed one man and injured another.
However, the speaker of parliament, Karu Jayasuriya, who urged Sirisena to reconsider his decision, said yesterday: “We should settle this through parliament, but if we take it out to the streets, there will be a huge bloodbath.”
Ranatunga, who gained immense prestige when he led Sri Lanka as rank outsiders to win the World Cup in 1996, had subsequently risen through politics to become minister for the development of petroleum resources in the Wickremesinghe government – until it was ousted last weekend, when Sirisena called on the former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to form a new government.
After being arrested and released on bail, Ranatunga alleged that a mob of trade-union activists had tried to kill him in his office at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.