COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s cricket authorities Sunday announced the indefinitepostponement of the country’s Twenty20 league scheduled for next month andsaid revised dates will be decided by a new board.
The Lankan Premier League (LPL) was due to start on August 18, but aninterim management body appointed last month decided to delay thetournament, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said in a statement.
“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to inform that the LPL (T20) has been postponedindefinitely, until an elected body is constituted at the SLC,” thestatement said.
In late May, Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal suspended elections for thecrisis-ridden cricket board.
Sports minister Faiszer Musthapha appointed a competent authority to runthe board until elections are held within six months.
Board elections were scuttled following a petition by a former secretary ofSLC Nishantha Ranatunga who argued that outgoing president ThilangaSumathipala was unsuitable for re-election.
Sumathipala was pitted against Ranatunga, a younger brother of Sri Lanka’s1996 World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga, in the election.
The Ranatunga brothers accuse Sumathipala of violating InternationalCricket Council regulations by holding office despite alleged links togambling.
Sumathipala acknowledges that his family is involved in gambling, but sayshe has nothing to do with the business and has not violated the ICC code ofconduct.
The court intervention in the cricket board last month came as four SriLankans were implicated in an alleged match-fixing scandal exposed in an AlJazeera documentary. – APP/AFP