Need to safeguard Sri Lankan cricket from 'political interference': Prez Wickremesinghe

Colombo: Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday said the state of cricket in the cash-strapped island nation has declined due to the "internal conflicts" within the cricketing community, emphasising that there was a need to safeguard the popular sport from "political interference".

Wickremesinghe's comments came as Sri Lanka Cricket has been besieged with complaints of player disciplinary issues, management corruption, financial misconduct and match-fixing allegations. Sri Lanka finished 9th out of the 10 teams that competed in the just-concluded ICC World Cup 2023.

Addressing Parliament during the budget 2024 debate, Wickremesinghe expressed a reluctance to take sides on cricket-related matters and called for a collective effort to solve the existing problems.

"During the Budget 2024 debate in the Parliament, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said the state of cricket in SriLanka has declined due to internal conflicts within the cricketing community and emphasised the collective responsibility of safeguarding cricket from political interference," a tweet on the platform X by the President's Media Division said.

He also called for the enactment of a new cricket law.

Expressing a reluctance to take sides on cricket-related matters, President Wickremesinghe stressed his repeated suggestion to enact a new cricket law based on the recommendations of the Chitrasiri Committee report, the media division said in the tweet.

The Chitrasiri report is the outcome of a committee headed by former Justice K.T. Chitrasiri to introduce a new Constitution to Sri Lanka Cricket through a Parliamentary Act and was recently formally handed over to the Chairman of the Cabinet Sub-Committee appointed to resolve Sri Lanka Cricket issues.

During his speech, Wickremesinghe also said that he told the sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe that litigation on cricket management affairs may take longer to resolve.

“This is a dispute involving two groups that is why we decided to settle this issue with a new law,” Wickremesinghe said, adding that the report submitted by the ex-judge Chithrasiri for a new SLC constitution could form the solution.