Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) continues to be embroiled in controversy, threatening to have a negative impact on the country’s most loved game. The SLC, which was facing a major financial crisis at one time and allegations of malpractice and corruption, is facing fresh issues following revelations made at a parliament committee meeting. The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) recently summoned the SLC and questioned the Board over several deals that lacked transparency, with focus placed on million-dollar television deals and a separate entity – a charitable arm – that the Board established called Cricket Aid. During COPE proceedings over the last few weeks, inconsistencies were noted in the responses given by SLC members to the questions raised by COPE. On 3 September, COPE ordered the SLC to suspend all operations of its subsidiary Cricket Aid with immediate effect and gave authority to the Auditor General (AG) to conduct a full-scale audit inquiry into all accounts of Cricket Aid from 2016 to date and submit a report to Parliament within two months. This decision was taken after SLC officials who appeared before COPE failed to provide satisfactory answers to questions raised by COPE members regarding annual accounts and the operations of Cricket Aid. COPE Chairman MP Sunil Handunnetti said Cricket Aid had not acted according to the instructions given and a proper audit inquiry had not been conducted into their accounts over the past three years. Responding to the allegations against Cricket Aid, an SLC board member, who did not wish to be named, said that Cricket Aid had been set up in 2004 but was later shutdown and reactivated only in 2016. It was revealed to COPE that Cricket Aid had paid Rs. 694,000 to two audit firms only to audit their nine income receipts and 19 expenditure receipts. The COPE Chairman inquired SLC officials as to what amount Cricket Aid had spent for charity purposes as it had been established for the purpose of eradicating chronic kidney disease. It was revealed that Cricket Aid Manager Upali Seneviratne withdrew Rs. 3.9 million as his salary for two years, whereas it had spent only Rs. 2.4 million on charity. The Cricket Aid Manager was recruited in September 2017 but had been paid a salary from July 2017. Even though SLC Secretary Mohan de Silva said that Cricket Aid had supported deaf and blind associations, the SLC officials failed to provide any specific cases. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, former Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage said that between 2010 and 2015, the SLC did not face any financial issues and the cricket team was also performing well. “We became T20 champs and reached the semi-final in the World Cup, and in the sport, we were on top. Financially, we were totally fine. Allegations of match-fixing and the depositing of money in foreign accounts surfaced when this Government came into power. During my time, we were financially well established. We had millions of rupees in our banks in Sri Lanka.” He also said that when he was the Sports Minister, the then Government spent around Rs. 2 billion to renovate the R. Premadasa Stadium and another Rs. 2 billion on the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. “Those are two small grounds, but the Hambantota one is a little bigger. That cost was large and we paid up to around Rs. 2 billion. They requested another Rs. 1.5 billion and we said we are not going to give it. But when this Government came into power, they had paid that money. During my time, we stalled paying that money for three years,” MP Aluthgamage stressed. The former Minister, however, said that if there were allegations against the board when he was the Minister, he would take the responsibility. “I am answerable for anything during my time as the Sports Minister because SLC is under the Sports Ministry and therefore, all the ministers who were there from 2015 up to now are also responsible as SLC comes under the Secretary and the Minister,” the former Minister stressed. No impact on the game Meanwhile, a Cricket Board official insisted that the allegations raised at COPE will not have an impact on the sport in Sri Lanka. “I don’t think these allegations would affect cricket as a game and most of those allegations had already been addressed,” an official of the SLC management, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Sunday Morning. “Most of the transactions had taken place between 2013 and 2015 and the new management took office in 2016, so the irregularities or the mismanagement that happened before that period should be answered by the then management,” he went on to say. Elaborating further, he stressed that those who were responsible for some of the allegations were on the committee, and questioned how the officials could give an explanation in such a scenario. When asked whether they accepted those allegations of irregularities or corruption, the SLC official denied the allegations, claiming that there were explanations for each and every one of them. Meanwhile, at the proceedings held last week, SLC Chairman Shammi Silva and SLC officials Ravin Wickramaratne, Lalith Rambukwella, and Aruna de Silva apologised for evading the COPE probe held in September. They tendered their apology in response to a directive by COPE to the SLC to show cause for their failure to appear before the committee when they were summoned on 3 September. During the COPE hearing, it came to light that SLC had authorised representatives in the UK and Ireland on 23 June 2016 to open bank accounts on behalf of SLC to raise funds at a time when the Finance Controller had also advised against opening fresh accounts. Further, it was revealed that a bank guarantee for television rights for the year 2018 had not been taken from Sony Television, who owns the SLC media rights, and it was during this year that a significant sum that Sony owed SLC was transferred into an overseas account. It was pointed out that the fraudulent transfer had been done as a result of having bank accounts in other parts of the world. COPE Chairman Handunetti kept on asking SLC officials how many accounts SLC had overseas. There were different opinions among SLC officials, with some claiming that no such accounts existed while others clarifying that Sri Lankan bodies overseas were empowered to open accounts. All attempts made by The Sunday Morning to contact former SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala and Sports Minister Harin Fernando were futile.