Incumbent Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) President Shammi Silva is set to be re-elected to the top post for his third successive two-year term during the Board’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on March 31, Indian media reported.

In the list of nominations declared by SLC’s election committee for the election of office bearers for 2025-27 term, Silva will only face ‘friendly fire’ from his own camp.

Therefore, he is assured of re-election at the AGM on March 31, according to analysts.

In December last year, Silva succeeded India’s current ICC Chairman Jay Shah as the Asian Cricket Council boss.

A businessman, Silva clashed with the then Sri Lanka sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe in 2023. The minister’s appointment of an interim committee due to a purported personal clash with Silva caused Sri Lanka’s suspension from the ICC.

As an immediate fall out of the ICC suspension, the U-19 Men’s World Cup scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in January last year was shifted to South Africa.

The sports minister was later sacked and the court reinstated the SLC administration of Silva.

Since Sri Lanka won the 1996 World Cup, the cash-rich body’s positions became a matter of prestige for the local business leaders. There have been much acrimony at annual elections among rival camps.

In 1998, the involvement of the then Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s security division at the AGM caused fisticuffs between rival factions. 

Source: PTI

--Agencies