• National Sports Council Chairman Arjuna Ranatunga not fazed by Minister’s Advisor’s letter

A letter written by Senior Advisor of the Minister of Sports Sudath Chandrasekara surfaced on Wednesday (29), informing former national cricket captain and former MP Arjuna Ranatunga to resign as the Chairman of the National Sports Council.

The letter states that a virtual meeting of the National Sports Council (NSC) was held on Wednesday but, no member of the council had reportedly participated in the meeting via Zoom. Sudath Chandrasekara further mentioned in his letter that he should not be surprised by the absence of council members as they no longer accept Arjuna Ranatunga as the Chairman of the National Sports Council.

Speaking to The Daily Morning Sports, Ranatunga said, “Normally we have the council meetings on Thursday but we had to move it to Tuesday this week. Six guys informed earlier that they are unable to join but two guys joined the meeting. He is trying to manipulate this and give the wrong picture to the public.”

In the letter, Chandrasekara claims that it was him who proposed to appoint Ranatunga as NSC Chairman, to current Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe. He also claims that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was thoroughly against appointing Ranatunga in this post. However, speaking to The Daily Morning Sports Ranatunga vehemently denied the statement regarding the former President. 

Speaking further on the letter, Ranatung said: “I am not answerable to these wheeler dealers. I was appointed by the Minister and I am only answerable to the Minister and the President if necessary. I have been strongly supporting the Minister and the President to bring the new anti-corruption bill. We can now see that there are people within us who are supporting these corrupt people. The Minister wants to end corruption in the field of Sri Lanka sports. I have always been a person who stands up against corruption, and I will continue to do so.”