A new era for Sri Lanka cricket

Thilanga Sumathiapala, the president of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), unveiled his administration's much-awaited and ambitious blueprint for the development of the game in the island at a gala dinner this week to mark the launch of the new SLC logo.

Sumathipala hopes his five-year plan, titled "A new era for cricket in Sri Lanka", will help lift the cricket board out of a financial crisis by raising USD$30 million for the development of the game.

The SLC's vision according to Sumathipala, an experienced cricket administrator and chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom, is to make Sri Lanka "the best cricket playing nation in the world" by 2009.

The presentation, delivered at the Colombo Hilton and attended by the new International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ehsan Mani and ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, focused on five key areas - international cricket, domestic cricket, development, administration and finance.

Sumathipala promised a complete upgrade of Sri Lanka's main international venues - Galle, SSC, Premadasa, Kandy and Dambulla, the estblishment of a new high performance training centre, called "The Cricket Campus", and the negotiation of an active calendar for both the national side and development teams(the latter having already been achieved).

On the development front he pledged an island-wide spending spree: indoor nets in 24 districts, 200 side wickets across the country, a modern gymnasium, the introduction of electronic scoreboards, automatic sprinkler systems, floodlights and the setting up of a cricket academy in every single district of the country.

A new administrative structure was confirmed with the SLC being broken down into four departments - national development, cricket operations, marketing and finance/administration. A new commercial arm, called Sri Lanka Cricket Incorporated, which will be registered as a BOI company, will be set up to reduce taxation and duty payments.

Finally, a new era of financial accountability and transparency was promised, with proper systems and controls for project management, regular audits and budgetary reviews.

The mission:

• Make Sri Lanka the Asian capital of world cricket.
• Give an opportunity to every outstanding Sri Lankan cricketer to represent the country.
• Implement a national plan to help develop cricket across Sri Lanka.
• Establish world-class infrastructure, training and facilities for the game.
• Uplift the standards of the game in all areas of cricketing activity.
• Ensure good corporate governance, supported by transparency, accountability and a proactive administration.
  
  The five key pillars:
  1.International cricket
  2.Domestic cricket
  3.Development
  4.Administration
  5.Finance