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LPL bills being paid by SLC: Opposition
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Accounting yet to be finalised: SLC
Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Thushara Indunil Amarasena[/caption]
Nearly a month after its conclusion, the Lanka Premier League (LPL) cricket tournament is back in the spotlight, with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) being criticised for spending millions of rupees on food and accommodation for officials and teams at Shangri-La, Hambantota.
These allegations were levelled against SLC by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Thushara Indunil Amarasena in Parliament recently, when he alleged that the SLC had spent over Rs. 40 million for food and accommodation at Shangri-La during the tournament period.
The tournament was launched on 26 November and ended on 16 December last year.
The MP alleged that the total bill for the food purchased from Shangri-La Hotel in Hambantota for SLC officials for the LPL had been Rs. 10.5 million, while a sum of Rs. 5.5 million had been spent for SLC drivers, in addition to Rs. 1.3 million to purchase food for the Sri Lanka Army, another Rs. 1.8 million on food for the teams that participated in the tournament, and a further Rs. 178,246 on food for an individual named Upali Manukularatne. In addition, Rs. 75,382 was spent for food and lodging of West Indian player Andre Russell.
He also alleged that the SLC had paid millions of rupees for the LPL, despite assurances given by them that the tournament was sponsored by a private company, and that the SLC would not have to spend for the tournament.
The 2020 LPL, also known as My11 Circle LPL T20 (for sponsorship reasons), was the inaugural edition of the LPL Twenty20 franchise cricket tournament in Sri Lanka. Five teams based on various cities around the country played a total of 23 matches.
The LPL was originally scheduled to start in August, but was rescheduled several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, matches were scheduled to be held in Kandy, Dambulla, and Hambantota.
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Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva[/caption]
The possibility of moving the tournament to either Malaysia or the UAE was once considered, to circumvent the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
However, on 5 November last year, the tournament was given the green light to go ahead, with all the matches being played at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium (MRIC) in Hambantota.
Five franchisee teams, named after Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla, and Jaffna, competed in 23 matches over a 15-day period for the title. Global stars including Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel (both from India), Andre Russell (West Indies), Brendon Taylor (Zimbabwe), Qais Ahmad, Gurbaz, Usman Shinwari (all from Afghanistan), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Johnson Charles (West Indies), Laurie Evans (England), Mohamed Amir, Shoaib Malik (Pakistan), and many more took part in the 15-day extravaganza.
As per the financial module for the tournament, the major portion of the revenue was to come from the event itself.
As per the agreement, the organisers will have to pay 40% of the television revenue to the franchises, which means each franchise will receive 8% of that money. The same module was to be applied for the title sponsorship as well.
In November 2020, Indian fantasy cricket league platform My11Circle was named the title sponsor with a bid of Rs. 150 million for the tournament. The winning team took home the prize money of Rs. 18.5 million, while runners-up bagged prize money of Rs. 9.25 million, and the Player of the Series was awarded Rs. 1.85 million.
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West Indian cricketer Andre Russell, who played for the Colombo Kings in the LPL 2020 [/caption]
Responding to the recent allegations, SLC CEO Ashley de Silva told The Sunday Morning that no payment had been made so far by the SLC to the Shangri-La Hotel, and the accounts were still being finalised.
Vehemently denying MP Amarasena’s statement made in Parliament, the SLC CEO stressed that the figures spoken about were all incorrect, and there were certain amounts that the franchise owners have to pay directly to the hotel.
“If they have not paid, we would recover it from them. We haven’t made any payment up to date to the Shangri-La. We are in the process of formulating the expenditure and the revenue that was generated, and once finalised, we will submit that information to the Ministry of Sports as well,” he added.
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While the tournament's top teams and players begged cash prizes, allegations have arisen that LPL officials racked up excessive bills of their own at the Shangri-La Hotel, Hambantota[/caption]
De Silva however confirmed that an invoice was submitted by Shangri-La to the SLC, but added that the SLC will have to go through it to see exactly what costs they are liable to bear.
When asked how long the SLC would take to finalise the expenditure, the CEO said this would depend on certain things being provided by suppliers, but noted that the final expenditure would most probably be ready within the next two weeks.
“It’s very transparent and we have nothing to hide. Those details would be made public as soon as those areas are ready,” he reiterated.
The SLC further assured that no government or SLC funds were utilised for the tournament, and therefore, they are confident that the tournament was definitely a profitable one.
“Initially, when we did the budget, we were profitable. We were going to make profit. We are not going to utilise any of the Board’s funds for this. There is no loss; no Board funds, and no government funds have been utilised,” he added.
Elaborating further, the CEO noted that there was a financial model they applied prior to the commencement of the tournament, and as per the financial model, there were certain areas where the SLC had to bear the cost.
“We ensured that we won’t utilise any of the Board’s funds, and that we are not going to run this event at a loss. Therefore, based on that, there was a financial model that we did, the certain costs such as match officials, everything related to game of cricket, the grounds, match officials, and umpire payments have to be borne by the SLC,” he said.
“We had to provide accommodation for all of them. At Shangri-La, we had to take match-related costs. We have provided accommodations for the match officials like umpires and anti-corruption officers for the whole period. It went into a bubble, and all the people who were involved in the game of cricket were accommodated at Shangri-La,” de Silva continued.
“The event was a success, and more than 95% of the people say good things about the event; there are only around 5% who always find faults,” he stressed.
PHOTO CREDITS PRADEEP DAMBARAGE, SRI LANKA CRICKET, ADA DERANA