SLC refutes allegations of bankruptcy

By Madushka Balasuriya 

Sri Lanka Cricket has rubbished allegations of imminent bankruptcy, describing them as ‘malicious and damaging’ to SLC’s reputation and the morale of the national side.

“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to strenuously deny the malicious and damaging allegations currently flooding Social and Digital Media claiming that ‘Sri Lanka Cricket will be bankrupt in 9 months’,” stated an official media release. “The contents of these reports/articles which are based on an article published by an Indian gossip website with its own agenda, are untrue, unfounded, malicious, and aimed at damaging the reputation of Sri Lanka Cricket, and more importantly the morale of the National side which is currently engaged in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.”

The website in question is Cricket Age, a regular critic of SLC and its administrators. The article, posted on Monday, makes several serious though unsubstantiated allegations in reference to SLC’s financial dealings. The story began to take traction on social media following a report on a mainstream news channel.

“In the interest of transparency, we also wish to state that several stakeholders (members of SLC) and members of the Executive Committee who have requested for match tickets for the ICC Cricket World Cup, have been provided such from the tickets purchased for this reason,” added the release. “Furthermore, the said stakeholders will be travelling to the UK at their own expense, whilst a limited number of Executive Committee members will be travelling to the UK on airline tickets obtained FOC (free of charge) on sponsorship privileges.”

SLC President Shammi Silva also commented on the allegations. While acknowledging that SLC’s financial picture “was not as good as it should have been,” he nevertheless assured that the body has “no financial issues whatsoever”.

“As President of SLC I can state with responsibility that there is no financial issues in the organisation,” stated Silva. “I and my Committee have ensured complete transparency and financial accountability in all our decisions over the past three and half months, and although the financial picture was not as good as it should have been when we took over in February [2019] we have streamlined and prioritised our development and other expenses and I can assure you that we have no financial issues whatsoever. This is merely the attempts of interested parties to destabilise the administration and demotivate our team.”

SLC’s Honorary Treasurer Lasantha Wickramasinghe added: “SLC is certainly not heading toward bankruptcy, it is true there had been a drop in income when compared to last year, however we have a healthy financial picture and the Committee is always engaged in improving this further, so there is no truth in the allegations that SLC is heading toward bankruptcy.”

 SLC CEO Ashley De Silva meanwhile stated he had been misquoted in one of the reports.

“I can unequivocally say that SLC is in no financial difficulty. The statement I made to the Management staff at a regularly conducted Management meeting, was to caution them to ensure they follow procurement and expense procedures so as to ensure financial transparency and accountability, which is the responsibility of the employees. It is unfortunate that this has been misquoted,” stated De Silva.

The SLC media release also refuted speculation that future or ongoing sponsorship agreements could be in peril, adding that they would be “seeking legal redress with regard to these malicious publications”.

Sri Lanka Cricket is no stranger to allegations of corruption and financial malpractice. Several ministerial and independent reports over the last two decades have brought to light numerous such instances, though firm action has never been forthcoming.