Unwell Sumathipala unable to attend court

Thilanga Sumathipala, the embattled president of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), was unable to attend court on Thursday after being admitted to a Colombo hospital.

Sumathipala was due to face charges on Thursday after allegedly becoming embroiled in a passport fraud scandal with an alleged gangster called Dammika Amarasinghe, who faces trial over several killings and attempted murders.

Amarasinghe is alleged to have travelled to the 1999 World Cup as a guest of the cricket board on a fake passport. Sumathipala is accused of using £1500 of the board's money to help fund the trip.

Sumathipala's lawyers submitted a medical certificate to the court, saying that Sumathipala had felt faint at a meeting on Tuesday and had been admitted to Apollo hospital with back pain.

The state counsel accused Sumaithapala of evading the court and called for an arrest warrant to be issued. Sumathipala's legal team denied this and went to argue about the legality of the Dec 10 court summons after an earlier discharge.

Judge TB Boyagama said there was no satisfactory evidence as to whether Sumathiapala was fit enough to attend court and ordered that he be examined by a judicial medical officer, who would report to the court on Monday.

Last week, CID investigators had raided the SLC headquarters in Colombo to search for evidence in the case.