Sri Lanka Cricket hand out millions on ‘charity’

Despite uncertainty surrounding future cricket tours owing to the pandemic, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has generously doled out over Rs. 100million to “charity” during the last two months.

The act is significant as the Board itself faces a bleak future with a number of inbound tours hanging in the balance. It has had to reschedule the England Test tour to Sri Lanka to January next year while the South Africa series was postponed. The India and Bangladesh tours to Sri Lanka in June/July remain doubtful. And SLC is yet to sell its broadcasting rights for the three-year cycle that started in April.

Despite these concerns, the Board has donated Rs. 25mn to fight the pandemic and a further Rs. 15mn on a PCR unit for the Sports Ministry for the use of sportspersons as they begin training from Monday.

But the biggest allocation, however, was towards its membership. SLC distributed Rs 50.5mn among 55 clubs and cricket associations as part of a “financial assistance programme” to help them fight the impact of coronavirus. This was in addition to monies distributed last month to clubs and district cricket associations to “upkeep the standards of the cricketing venues and infrastructure facilities”.

The Board had paid cricket clubs with grounds facilities Rs 100,000 a month for March and April. District cricket associations were paid Rs 150,000 each to support staff and players of the district squads who faced difficulty.

Under the latest programme, however, four cricket associations - Mercantile, Defence Services, State Services and Nationalised Service - have received grants of Rs 1mn each while 29 Controlling Clubs have got a total of Rs 34mn.

A club with a ground and a clubhouse has received a grant of Rs 1.5mn while those who have either a ground or a clubhouse have been rewarded with a cash award of Rs 1mn including some of the paper clubs with none of these facilities or activities. Nomads SC, Mutwal SC, Liberty CC, Leo’s CC and Kollupitiya Playground SC are among them.

Chilaw Marians which doesn’t have a clubhouse got Rs 1.5 million while Rs 12.5 million has been distributed among 22 Affiliated Clubs with six clubs receiving Rs. 750,000 while the rest collected Rs. 500,000 each.

Separately, the Board also paid a grant of Rs 20,000 each to 150 local coaches spread across the country on the basis of hardships faced. It also allocated Rs 1.675mn to umpires and match referees as relief loans. While these are not overtly bribes, the cash payments will help the incumbent administrators garner support at the 2021 election.