ZCZC
BSP-09
CRICKET-SRI-LPL
Sri Lanka postpones new T20 cricket league
COLOMBO, July 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Sri Lanka’s cricket authorities Sunday
announced the indefinite postponement of the country’s Twenty20 league
scheduled for next month and said revised dates will be decided by a new
board.
The Lankan Premier League (LPL) was due to start on August 18, but an
interim management body appointed last month decided to delay the tournament,
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said in a statement.
“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to inform that the LPL (T20) has been postponed
indefinitely, until an elected body is constituted at the SLC,” the statement
said.
In late May, Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal suspended elections for the
crisis-ridden cricket board.
Sports minister Faiszer Musthapha appointed a competent authority to run
the board until elections are held within six months.
Board elections were scuttled following a petition by a former secretary
of SLC Nishantha Ranatunga who argued that outgoing president Thilanga
Sumathipala was unsuitable for re-election.
Sumathipala was pitted against Ranatunga, a younger brother of Sri Lanka’s
1996 World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga, in the election.
The Ranatunga brothers accuse Sumathipala of violating International
Cricket Council regulations by holding office despite alleged links to
gambling.
Sumathipala acknowledges that his family is involved in gambling, but says
he has nothing to do with the business and has not violated the ICC code of
conduct.
The court intervention in the cricket board last month came as four Sri
Lankans were implicated in an alleged match-fixing scandal exposed in an Al
Jazeera documentary.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1217 hrs