By Ranjika Perera
Minister of Sports Roshan Ranasinghe opted to adopt a no-nonsense approach, unlike his predecessors, when he wielded the country’s Sports Law No. 25 of 1973 and, along with the powers vested in him, ensured that only the relevant Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) employees and Executive Committee officials were approved to make the trip to the UAE for the Asia Cup, which is scheduled to commence on 27 August.
The Minister struck the names of nine SLC employees and four Executive officials off the list that was presented to him for approval.
Many were of the belief that Minister Ranasinghe took this stance after his appointee to the post of Chairman of the National Sports Council, former Sri Lanka National Cricket Captain Arjuna Ranatunga, was sent a Letter of Demand by the SLC claiming Rs. 2 billion each in damages for alleged derogatory comments Ranatunga had made in an interview aired on national television.
After the debacle with the World Athletics U20 Championships, Minister Ranasinghe was adamant that sports officials must get prior approval before travelling overseas.
SLC’s Vice President Ravin Wickramaratne was the first official to be left embarrassed by Minister Ranasinghe’s approach, when the Minister had phoned Wickramaratne who had been at the airport to travel to Dubai and had instructed him to go back home.
SLC officials were left shell-shocked when Wickramaratne, who was assigned as the Tournament Director for the Asia Cup, was refused permission to travel for the event.
Meanwhile, it can be confirmed that Minister Ranasinghe had not wanted a SLC Executive Committee member to be appointed as the Tournament Director and had informed SLC CEO Ashley de Silva to produce the names of senior SLC staff who would be better suited for business continuity in this regard.
“Executive Committee officials come and go; it is best to have a permanent member appointed to perform this task,” the Minister had said.
CEO summoned to Sports Ministry
Earlier, SLC CEO de Silva was instructed to send the names, designations, duty rosters, and costs to be incurred for all of his SLC employees who were assigned to make the trip to the UAE for the Asia Cup.
Shortly thereafter, he was summoned for a meeting to discuss and provide justification as to why such a huge number of his staff were required to make the trip to the UAE for the Asia Cup.
After SLC CEO de Silva had met with the Minister and other officials, Minister Ranasinghe had approved only the names of the following:
- Chandima Mapatuna (Head of International Cricket)
- Aruna De Silva (Head of Administration)
- Travis Fernando (Manager, Tour Organising)
- Upul Bandara Navaratne (Head of Marketing)
- Mahesh Bopegamage (Chief Financial Officer)
- Prashanthi Wijesinghe (Head of Internal Audit)
- Thejaka Wanigasekara (Head of Anti-Corruption)
- Palitha Seneviratne (Manager, Security)
- Shibly Vilcassim (Coordinator of International Cricket)
- Kamal Dharmasiri (Head of NDC)
- Chinthaka Edirimanne (Head of National Cricket Operations)
- Chalaka N. Silva (Head of Legal)
- Prasanna Rodrigo (Media Manager)
- Godfrey Dabrera (Manager, International Venues and Facilities/National Curator)
- Major Tanesh Dias (Senior Manager, HR)