Present situation of Dambulla International Cricket Stadium

In response to numerous queries received by Sri Lanka Cricket we wish to clarify the present situation as follows:-

It needs to be pointed out that

1.The legal owner of the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium (RDICS) is the Dambulla temple.

2.A trust has been created sometime ago wherein the lease payment is the responsibility of that trust and the first payment for a period of 5 years had been made in the year 2000. Since then the Trust had not made any payments. Hence the lease has now lapsed for a period of almost one year due to an act of omission by the Dambulla Trust for which Sri Lanka Cricket is not a party to where payments are concerned. This lapse of lease payment was made aware to SLC only a few weeks back.

3.Chairman Sri Lanka Cricket with other officials visited the High Priest of the Dambulla Temple with a cash payment relevant to the lapsed period and made an appeal both verbally and in writing to find a suitable solution to this pressing problem.

4.Sri Lanka Cricket also understand that due to this serious lapse by Dambulla Trust the ownership of RDICS is now with the Dambulla temple.

5.Under the circumstances Sri Lanka Cricket decided that it is not prudent to stage matches at a venue where arrears of payments are due, and the possibility of a volatile confrontation possible due to no fault of Sri Lanka Cricket.

6.Queries have been made that Sri Lanka would lose US$800,000 by the shifting of the venues. How this figure was arrived at is a mystery. But suffice it to say that if hotels in Dambulla are going to lose by the shifting then by the same token, not only hotels in Colombo would gain similarly but also Sri Lanka Cricket would save all payments on account of teams & officials to hotels in Dambulla since Sri Lanka Cricket has a Sponsorship package with a hotel in Colombo. It is the obligation of Sri Lanka Cricket to stage the matches in Sri Lanka without any hindrance to the cricket loving public in Sri Lanka.