The four-member delegation headed by Sports Minister Faiszer Mustapha that travelled to Dubai last week to meet the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) hierarchy chairman Shashank Manohar and CEO David Richardson and returned with nothing new except that the ICC had given them instructions to hold the Sri Lanka Cricket elections by February 9, 2019.
In all probability the instructions to appoint a management committee was issued in advance by the ICC although it was not revealed to the public here. That is what prompted the Minister to run to Dubai, not that he went on his own accord to seek an extension. The ICC had very clearly laid down the riot act because this is direct government interference in sport where it lacks an independence of an appointed interim committee. One has only to read between the lines to know what the ICC is clearly saying. They want an independent committee to run the game. What can a secretary of the Sports Minister who has been appointed as competent authority do to uplift cricket in the country?
The ICC has clearly outlined the following:
“1. To amend regulations to appoint an election committee by the general body of the SLC consisting of retired two judicial officials of high court and above and a retired senior member of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka or any retired public official with experience in conducting elections. The proposed election committee shall have the authority to vet the voters list and to finalize the same in order to conduct the election process and to announce results.
2. On appointment of the election committee as stated above nominations shall be called within a period; not less than one month from the said date of appointment of the election committee.
3. (a) Any party dissatisfied with any decision of the election committee shall appeal within a period of one week to the appellate body consisting of three retired judges of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
(b) Any appeal to be finalized within one week of submission to the said appellate body.
4. To appoint a Management committee which will consist of four independent members with the Competent Authority appointed by the Hon Minister to manage the affairs of SLC until the elections are conducted.
5. SLC will make necessary arrangements to conduct elections to elect office Bearers to SLC on or before 9th February 2019.”
The outcome of this meeting is what we had stated in these columns last week.
What is interesting is how are we going to do it? The ICC has given only additionally a one month extension. They have agreed to some form of road map. It will be interesting to see who the Minister goes and appoints.
With all the hue and cry going on between the two government parties that is going to be a challenging task. There will be people with vested interests trying to sabotage the process at every given opportunity. The incumbent committee wants to run cricket and on the other side there are people lining up to get in there. But at the end of the day the committee should comprise people with credibility who could command the respect and the endorsement of the public. But that is never going to happen in the current circumstances.
The previous committee will do everything in their power to block independent people from coming in because they have too many skeletons in their cupboards. Thus the Minister is in a quandary - caught up between a rock and a hard place.
It is the duty of the Minister to use his powers vested in him to appoint the right people. The problem in this country is that nobody in the position of power is doing the right thing. It’s always a case of jockeying for positions and advantage. In that kind of a scenario how do you do it? The moment you depart from doing the right thing you end up getting into this kind of muddle.
It won’t be surprising if one or two members of the previous Sumathipala led committee is also absorbed into the four-member management committee.
At this moment of time there must be thundering lobbying and a lot of horse trading going on to get in. To draw a parallel, it is like the Sports Minister going to appeal against the ball tampering charge brought against Sri Lanka in the Caribbean when from the very inception everyone knew it was a non-starter. Similarly when an ICC Executive Committee has laid out a deadline for the administration to be changed in Sri Lanka no one can arbitrarily change that.
It’s like a non-starter trying to cling onto a non-existent threat to try and get the previous committee back into power. There is no doubt that Sumathipala is hell bent on trying to be there for next year’s Cricket World Cup in England. That is clearly what they are jockeying for.
Therefore it is the duty of the Minister to appoint the right people to serve in the management committee because the welfare of the country comes first before every individual’s interest. But that is not what is happening today.
The Minister has a golden opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the cricket loving public of this country by appointing people with honour, dignity and integrity. Although such people are in short supply there are people amongst our society who are willing to come forward and serve in the interest of cricket.
Over to you Minister the ball is in your court.
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