World Cup-winning former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga, expressing his views regarding the suspension imposed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), has called for a comprehensive investigation into the matter.
Ranathunga further highlighted that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has to stand by his commitments against corruption and launch a separate investigation into the matter, in his official capacity, with the intention of punishing those who are responsible for betraying Sri Lanka.
“We should investigate how we ended up here, and expose everyone responsible for leading us here.”
“If there is a system which allows someone to betray the entire country for self-protection, the President should take tough decisions by conducting proper investigations”, he stressed.
“This is the best time to clean this up,” said Ranatunga, who is the Chairman of the SLC Interim Committee which was later suspended through a court order.
“I urge the President to conduct a thorough investigation into the pressure exerted on the Minister of Sports to change his decision”.
Meanwhile, he stated that the President’s priority must be to inquire into who laid the foundation for the suspension of SLC’s membership, what statements were made abroad betraying the country, in doing so who tried to destroy Sri Lanka Cricket and what punishments should be given to those people.
“However, we must try to get this ban lifted as soon as possible. I am unhappy about the procedure too”, he added.
Ranatunga, who expressed that this investigation must be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and other respective authorities, also said that nevertheless, it is more important that the President conducts an investigation to uncover the individuals responsible for destroying Sri Lanka Cricket and to punish them.
Commenting further regarding the matter, the former Sri Lanka captain highlighted that even the ruling party and the opposition in the Parliament got together in order to halt the corruption in Sri Lanka Cricket.
Moreover, he said: “During the war time in this country, even fighting was stopped for a day because we were playing for the country in 1996. It was neither Arjuna Ranatunga’s team nor Ranatunga’s cricket administration”.
“When the Sri Lankan cricket team was playing, even the LTTE stopped the war and watched the cricket match”, he claimed.
