SLC vice-president 'compelled' to resign

Sri Lanka Cricket vice-president K Mathivanan has resigned after his months of discontent with the board culminated in being "compelled" to withdraw from a club cricket election. Mathivanan is the present Colts Cricket Club president, and was set to re-contest that position in an election on Friday, but his withdrawal will now allow SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga to take the post uncontested.

"I have had to step down from the election today for reasons that are out of my control. I can't say anything about those reasons," Mathivanan said. "Because I have not been happy at my job in Sri Lanka cricket for the last four or five months, I also stepped down from my role there. Everyone knows what's happening at SLC and I thought I must safeguard my reputation and just step down.

"[Ranatunga] was supposed to contest me today, but after I stepped down, he is uncontested as usual."

Ranatunga has been elected to the post of secretary unopposed in the last two SLC elections. He had had a rival in the lead-up to the 2012 elections, but the opposing candidate also withdrew close to the elections.

Mathivanan said he had become increasingly disenchanted with SLC, and had had only attended two executive committee meetings since being reelected in April. "Last year, as vice-president, I was in charge of cricket affairs and chairman of the district cricket and school cricket committees, but this year I was not given anything. I was just a spectator."

SLC president Jayantha Dharmadasa said that Mathivanan's letter of resignation had been circulated among the board's committee members and an emergency meeting will be held on Monday to discuss the issue. Certain statements made by Mathivanan to the media had painted the wrong picture of his administration, he said, and he was shocked by the developments. "When Mathi came to see me I thought that he had come to discuss some issues he had with his club Colombo Colts CC," Dharmadasa said. "But he took me by surprise when he handed me his letter to resign from the post of vice-president. I told him that he had no problems working with the SLC and that he should reconsider his decision. But he was adamant and wanted to resign."*

Mathivanan was serving his second term as vice-president of SLC, and had also been secretary for the interim committees between 2006 and December 2008. A long-serving champion of domestic cricket, he was a popular figure among the local clubs, and had easily received the highest number of votes from among the four vice-presidential candidates in the last SLC elections.