Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has filed an official complaint against former sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe for embezzlement. They filed a complaint with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.
This came a day before the hearing of the case filed by SLC over Roshan Ranasinghe’s decision to sack the entire board and appoint an interim committee headed by former captain Arjuna Ranatunga.
Sri Lanka Cricket issued an official statement regarding the case filed by them. They said: “The decision to file this complaint arises out of concern that MP Roshan Ranasinghe has not adequately disclosed the utilization of funds allocated by SLC for the intended purposes.
“This move comes in the wake of a noticeable disparity between the information disclosed to the media by Mr Ranasinghe MP and the response received by SLC under a Right to Information (RTI) request, outlining the details of the expenditure incurred “.
The court is likely to hear the decision of Harin Fernando, Ranasinghe’s successor in the Sports Ministry. The latter’s decision to dismiss the administration came after months of confrontation between them. Ranasinghe based his call on a government audit report that had accused the SLC management of corruption.
ICC bans SLCs with immediate effect for failure to fulfill their obligations
Things haven’t been going very well in Sri Lanka lately. They did not have the best time in the ICC World Cup 2023 and after that, ICC banned the entire board of directors with immediate effect for serious breach of duty. They declared:
“Sri Lanka Cricket is in serious breach of its obligations as a member, in particular the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration of cricket in Sri Lanka.”
As they were banned, the U19 World Cup that was scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka was moved out of the country. The tournament will now be played in South Africa in January. Notably, the ICC has allowed Sri Lanka to participate in matches despite the imposition of a ban.
