Rich pickings for Sri Lankan board

The Sri Lankan board is on the verge of signing a lucrative television deal with a broadcasting company for the next four years. Mohan de Silva, the president of the board, termed the amount involved as an "unbelievable figure" during a press conference at the board headquarters yesterday.

However, de Silva refused to reveal the figures because he said that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) was meeting on Monday to send out bid documents to prospective television companies to try and match the amount which the existing broadcasting company had quoted. "We had difficulty in attracting television rights last year," de Silva said, "because of the instability and the adverse publicity that was levelled against SLC."

"After I assumed office as president one of my priorities was to redeem the image of SLC and re-establish its credibility."

De Silva said that he was able to put this deal through successfully with the help given to him by Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, when they met in Lahore last month. "He gave me a lot of advice and guidance to negotiate with the broadcasting company. He certainly helped us obtain this lucrative offer."