By Revatha S. Silva
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The Gazette No. 2215/30 issued by the Sports Minister on Friday (2)[/caption]
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The Sports Ministry appointed a five-member Cricket Administrative Committee on Friday (2) under instructions of Attorney General (AG) Dappula de Livera on Friday (2).
The committee comprised Prof. Arjuna de Silva (Chairman), Ashley de Silva (Secretary), Sujeewa Mudalige, Uchitha Wickremesinghe, and Amal Edirisooriya (Sports Ministry Director General). The Committee will look into the national cricket affairs until 20 May Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) election.
But, most likely, there will be further hullaballoo, especially in the legal front, during over six-week period ahead of the election.
Gazette date is 17 February
Interestingly the gazette notification which was issued on Friday had been dated 17 February 2021 (see inset photo). Does it invalidate the AG order because it came only last week? Or, has the Sports Minister sole authority to do it under the Sports Law of the country?
Section of the particular gazette No. 2215/30 said as a government notification the following:
“By virtue of the powers vested in me under Section 39-(I) of the Sports Act, No. 25 of 1973, I, Namal Rajapaksa, Minister of Youth and Sports do hereby prescribe the following special direction.
“I. I, hereby extend the term of office of the Officers of the Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket, duly elected and currently in office for the year 2019/21, to be extended effective up to the 5th of April, 2021.”
Resultant ambiguities
The above gazette issued on 17 February 2021 clearly invalidates the focal point of the protest raised by the Colts Cricket Club. Their main query was that the SLC is overstaying after their term expired on 21 February 2021. This gazette completely denies that fact, after over a month.
Colts CC, headed by the secretarial nominee of the Kangadaran Mathivanan camp at the next election, is often considered as the stronghold of SLC’s rival party.
And the notification above also puts into ambiguity in some way as to why then the AG had recommended that the current SLC be “dissolved” forthwith.
Then there is also a possibility that there could have been so many other reasons, other than the “overstay” allegation, which could have prompted the AG to arrive in his decision.
SLC rival camp’s opinion
Can this gazette therefore be taken as “a lifeline” given to the current SLC committee, headed by Shammi Silva, in a possible court battle in future?
“The date of the gazette indirectly indicates it is not issued following the AG’s recommendation. It has been backdated to 17 February,” one of the members of the SLC rival party for the forthcoming election told Sunday Morning Sports on Friday.
“It (the gazette) also goes on to give some kind of legality quite suddenly to a body that has allegedly completed its term before one month. We are going to raise this issue in our future legal engagements,” said a leading member of the SLC rival camp at the forthcoming election.
SLC’s response
Meanwhile one of the senior SLC ex-co members told Sunday Morning Sports yesterday (3) that they cannot make any comment on Friday’s gazette because the Sports Minister has issued the notification “using the powers vested on him by the present Sports Law” of the country.
“The Honourable Sports Minister has appointed that committee using the powers that he has under the Sports Law. We have no right to make any comment on that. The committee is anyway for a period until 20 May election. After that, any party which is going to win will have to take control of the cricket board,” he said.
“Our opposition might take some legal action against the appointment of this committee but they are only going to challenge the Sports Minister. This gazette only says that the Minister has given us approval by virtue of powers vested on him,” he further added.
“It is not backdated or anything. But the Minister’s decision to issue it in fact can nullify any argument whether we had overstayed and passed our accounts subsequently, and also some important decisions were made thereafter and so on,” he argued.