COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s sports minister has appointed a new interim committee to run cricket in the island nation after dissolving the previous board following corruption allegations.“I have appointed the new interim committee today, with people who love cricket,” Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told reporters yesterday.
The minister’s decision comes amid media allegations of corruption at the cricket board.
“The earlier board wanted to resign soon after the World Cup, but we asked them to stay until the ongoing England cricket tour,” he said. “We will go for election in the first half of next year.”
The new board is headed by Upali Dharmadasa, who was chairman of the then Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka from 1989-95 and 1996-99, before the governing body was managed by a number of interim committees after Sri Lanka’s campaign to defend the World Cup in 1999 ended in embarrassment. The secretary general will be Prakash Schaffter, an interim committee member from 2005-7, while former test player Sidath Wettamuni and Nimal Perera, assistant treasurer of the 2002-3 interim committee, have been named as members of the new panel.
When asked why he did not extend the term of the previous interim committee until the election in 2012, the minister said: “We need to create a proper background. I know the mafia in the sport and we need to rescue the game.”