Question marks over team ownership
Though the Team Sri Lanka was representing Sri Lanka Cricket at the T10 League, two people have staked a claim, saying they have paid US$ 1 million to the league owners to buy it.
On the official twitter account of the T10 league on November 13, 2017, two individuals, Kashif Shahzad and Vijay Vyas, posed for a photograph with League Chairman Shaji Ul Mulk and the caption “Team Sri Lankan Cricket directors with League chairman”. It also said @ Chandi_17 will be leading the lions.
This is only one such instance of these two individuals claiming the ownership of the Sri Lanka team. They have given several press interviews, including on video, saying they were the co-directors of Team Sri Lanka. SLC now denies it.
The Sunday Times learns that Vijay Vyas has met with the Sri Lankan team on their arrival in UAE and had wanted to get into the team bus enroute to the hotel. Baffled by his claim, the team management had resisted entry, but had agreed to meet the businessman at the hotel premises.
At the hotel, Vyas has invited the team management to come to his suite. Having refused the offer politely, they met him at the hotel’s coffee shop. He explained how he had got the ownership of the team and how he wanted to come to Sri Lanka one month before the tournament to launch the team jersey to create hype.
“I told the manager to clarify this with CEO, Sri Lanka Cricket Ashley de Silva and we told him, we cannot talk to him until, we get a clarification from Sri Lanka Cricket with regard to the ownership because he was asking for team combinations and all sorts of other information,” Avishka Gunawardene said.
“The next day we got instruction from CEO saying SLC has not come to any such agreement with a third party with regard to the team ownership.”
Accordingly, the team management has advised Vyas to keep away from the players but he has been there wearing the Team Sri Lanka T-shirt along with a group of cheerleaders supporting the team.
The T10 League was organized by the Emirates Cricket Board ( ECB) with the approval of the ICC, the world governing body, which has given ECB the exclusive event sanctioning rights in accordance with the ICC’s event sanctioning regulations in force at that time to conduct the tournament. However, the ICC had no role in assigning and contracting the umpires and match referees and had provided anti-corruption services to the event on ECB’s request--acting as a service provider to the ECB.
Team Sri Lanka was represented by the winner of the Inter-Provincial Tournament, Western Province, during the tournament. SLC said they agreed to a participation fee of US$ 25000 to the team. It was later distributed among the team members.
However, according to the League brochure, the organizers have fixed a salary cap between US$ 10,000 to US$ 40,000 for the players. But no Sri Lankan cricketer got paid according to the approved payment plan by the organizers— leaving many unanswered questions about who benefited by sending a team for the tournament that has put the careers of several Sri Lankan cricketers in jeopardy.