- Warns 2026 ICC T20I WC co-hosting rights at stake
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Member of Parliament (MP) Dayasiri Jayasekara says the Ministry of Sports should tread subtly when dealing with any allegations into acts of irregularities connected to incumbent Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) office bearers.
If not, he said that the International Cricket Council (ICC) could consider such interferences as politically motivated, with the dire consequences likely to be felt by the country at large.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Sports, the former Sports Minister stated that as Sri Lanka was in line to co-host the 2026 ICC Men’s T20I World Cup alongside India, any political intervention may not bode well for the island nation.
“We need to deal with any allegations related to the SLC administration in a coherent and legal way,” he said.
“Sri Lanka must not overlook the fact that the ICC has zero tolerance for government interventions in elected cricket boards. This is a very sensitive area for the ICC and the Sports Ministry has to perform an expert balancing act or we will court trouble once more,” he added.
Jayasekara further warned that any haphazard efforts made to get rid of an elected cricketing body of a member nation could force the ICC to come down on Sri Lanka “like a tonne of bricks”.
He argued that in such a scenario, the ICC could suspend Sri Lanka and strip it of its co-hosting rights ahead of the showpiece event scheduled for February and March next year.
“The World Cup next year is also set to bring over 30,000 tourists to the country,” he elaborated.
“This will be a significant number for our tourism industry, and if by any chance the ICC removes us as hosts, as it moved the Men’s Under 19 World Cup from Colombo to South Africa last year, it could grant India the entire hosting rights and we will be left high and dry.
“That is the real danger that lies underneath all of this and I hope this will be understood by those in power,” Jayasekara added.
The former Minister, who oversaw sports from 2015 to 2018, also stressed that he had no favourites when it came to those at the helm of the game’s local ruling body.
“I know there have been factions at SLC for decades now and those factions have bought certain politicians to cling to power at Maitland Place. But I am glad that nobody at SLC has hitherto been able to buy me over. That is why I am able to speak frankly and without any inhibitions, unlike most other politicians,” the MP said.
He reiterated the fact that the onus was on the Government of the day to determine as to how it could best probe any mass-scale allegations of fraud and corruption linked to SLC administrations in the recent past.
“I am not going to offer the National People’s Power (NPP) any advice on how it should deal with allegations linked to SLC office bearers,” the Attorney-at-Law pointed out.
“That is their baby and not mine, as it is they who are in power at the moment. All I can say is that they will have to manoeuvre through all this in a manner that does not incur the wrath of the game’s global governing body, or else the match will be over for us, to put it in cricketing jargon,” he asserted.
As Jayasekara emphasised, any measures taken to that extent should under no circumstance antagonise the Dubai-based ICC. He added that if the latter were to be the case, its ramifications would be felt by the country.
Jayasekara, who delivered a rousing speech during the recent Budget debate in Parliament concerning the expenditure head of the Sports Ministry, also took a rather dim view of the state of sports in the country, six months under the NPP Government.
“The incumbent Sports Minister is rather elusive; I know that for a fact,” he opined.
“This guy’s overall rapport with the media has also left much to be desired, based on what a lot of journalists have told me. Furthermore, I do not see any positive strides being made by the ministry concerned to revive the sports sector and the outlook is very dismal,” he concluded.