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No permanent adversaries: Shammi Silva (left) and Thilanga Sumathipala[/caption]
In a twist to the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) election coming up on 20 May, the Thilanga Sumathipala faction has allegedly patched up their differences with the incumbent Shammi Silva camp, an SLC source revealed to The Morning Sports on Sunday (28 February).
A commonly known secret in the cricket circles was that the current SLC executive committee, headed by President Shammi Silva, was at loggerheads with the Sumathipalas following developments in the cricket board after the last SLC Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in February 2019.
Maneuverings to mislead the Courts!
Both Silva as well as one of his Vice Presidents, Ravin Wickramaratne, were then considered close confidantes of Sumathipala. But, as we reported on 15 January in our sports pages, the Sumathipala camp was aligning more closely with the Kangadaran Mathivanan camp which is contesting the Silvas in the forthcoming SLC AGM - your enemy's enemy becomes your friend.
“(But now) It emerges that Mr. Sumathipala is more or less working together with Mr. Silva. There is also a possibility that there won’t be an election anyway. There could be a last-minute legal issues cropping up to stop the AGM being held,” said the above source, who is also a close ally of the Silva camp.
Nomination lists shared too
It is also understood that Sumathipala has allegedly included his ally, a member of the SLC affiliate SSC, as one of the nominees for the post of Vice President in the next AGM.
The move is considered in the cricket circles as one aimed at stopping present SLC Vice President Jayantha Dharmadasa being reelected to the position.
But our source added another party is meanwhile attempting to stop the SLC election being held by moving the courts.
“One interested party is trying to build up certain issues conspicuously with the intention of giving the judiciary a picture that the present SLC is incompetent. They do it in the hope of disturbing the possibility of having elections,” he added referring to the 15 March Appeal Court hearing of a petition filed by a group of individual including former SLC administrators.
Our effort to contact Sumathipala in this regard failed last week.
