Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe claims that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) forced the International Cricket Council (ICC) to suspend Sri Lanka from international cricket.

Ranasinghe made this accusation while quoting a letter allegedly sent by SLC to the ICC on 07 November 2023, during a media briefing which is currently being held in Colombo.

“Facts have been confirmed that the SLC President and the Executive Board has misled the ICC”, the minister said.

Meanwhile, the minister quoting a letter said to have been sent by the SLC President to the ICC on November 06, 2023 said “the second paragraph of this letter mentions that: Sri Lanka Cricket has yet to be informed of its suspension or the cancellation of its registration as a national sports association and our only intimidation of this news, is through the media. We have no advanced notice on this decision, nor were we afforded the hearing prior to it being made public.”

“Next thing is that, the SLC has clearly misled the ICC regarding the international suspensions imposed on Sri Lanka Rugby and Sri Lanka Football pretending that those were arbitrary decisions taken by me”, he alleged.

“I would like to mention this as the first letter of betrayal of the country”, the minister said.

He also quoted another letter which is also claimed that the SLC President sent to the ICC dated 07 November 20203, emphasized “this is the letter of treason. It says like this: Minister of Sports in Sri Lanka that in the event Interim Committee is appointed to carry out the functions of SLC that ICC would be compelled to suspend the Sri Lanka Cricket board with immediate effect. In addition, it is also imperative to inform that Hon. Minister that the following events that are scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka have to be shifted to other countries including the Under 19 World Cup to be played in January 2024”.

However, issuing a statement today SLC refuted the recent allegations made in the Parliament regarding the communication between the SLC and the International Cricket Council (ICC). 

Sri Lanka’s cricket governing body alleged it is evident that there is a misapprehension and misinterpretation of the contents of the letter under reference, and that the SLC is compelled to clarify its position on the said matter.
“SLC, as a Full Member of the ICC, is duty-bound and obliged to adhere to the member obligations envisaged in the articles of association of the ICC. In doing so SLC is further obliged to keep the ICC informed of any difficulty and/or difficulties of adhering to such obligations. 

With the appointment of Mr Roshan Ranasinghe as the Hon. Minister of Sports, SLC has been experiencing continuous undue interferences by the Hon. Minister in its governance and operational matters.

The interferences by the Hon. Minister did make it difficult for SLC to manage its day-to-day affairs as envisaged in the said article, compelling the SLC to bring such interferences to the attention of ICC as SLC could not honour its obligations to comply with the said requirements envisaged in the article 2.4(D) of the ICC Articles”, the statement mentioned.