SL sports minister wants to rid 'system corruption' from SLC

Sri Lanka sports minister Navin Dissanayake said he set up the interim committee to run Sri Lanka Cricket so that there "is no system corruption" within the board.

"We want the finances our cricketers earn and bring to SLC used in the proper manner and dispersed properly," he said. "We have to protect our cricketers - cricketers like Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara had a lot of problems with the previous body. The time is right for cricket to be put on the right track. There is no room for politicians and individuals."

Former Test opener Sidath Wettimuny leads the nine-member committee that took control on April 1 because the posts held by existing officials, led by president Jayantha Dharmadasa, had become null and void. The laws governing all sports bodies in Sri Lanka require annual elections to be held on or before March 31. SLC's elections, however, were postponed until the end of April due to the World Cup, which ended on March 29.

Dissanayake had wanted to hold the elections on April 30, but the results of an investigation he had begun into the previous regime authorised by the then sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage had turned up financial irregularities which needed to be addressed.

So he appointed the interim committee which has "been given the right to take cricket forward," in Sri Lanka and said they will ensure:

"We want to clear all this up and we don't think an election is going to help that process but only complicate it," Dissanayake said. "Improving the cricket structure, changing the voting system for the elections, we feel this interim committee will bring those changes. Anybody who takes over after that will have to adhere to it. It's a very transparent process."