Lots of very strict guidelines have been imposed in SLC constitution, says Transformation Committee

SLC Transformation Committee member PC Dinal Phillips (right) addresses the media in the presence of (from left) Secretary Prakash Schaffter, Chairman Eran Wickramaratne and member Sidath Wettimuny  

• “We are looking at professionalising Sri Lanka Cricket as an institution” – TC Chairman

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The Sri Lanka Cricket Transformation Committee which has been in existence for seven weeks held their second meeting with the media at Sri Lanka Cricket headquarters yesterday to update the progress they have made so far in drafting a new constitution for Sri Lanka Cricket amongst other aspects of cricket.

“There will be checks and balances, proper accountability, and the constitution will be in line with the ICC and with other cricket boards,” said Transformation Committee member PC Dinal Phillips.

“There is a paradigm shift in the new constitution, not only the ICC constitution, we’ve also taken into consideration constitutions of South Africa, Australia and England. We’ve also hired the former head of legal of ICC David Becker to guide us in this process, so it won’t be a homegrown thing. We have input from Becker himself who came to Sri Lanka at his own cost and stayed for three days.”

Elaborating further on the constitutional changes that are likely to take place, Phillips said, “There are definite guidelines and prohibitions. We have extended the prohibition to people who have by any way been banned by the ICC. They cannot come and hold office. It’s one example of the lots of very strict guidelines that have been imposed.”

As regards the meeting the Transformation Committee had with ICC chairman Jay Shah during his recent visit, Phillips said, “We told the ICC chairman that we have a working draft in progress and he was very pleasantly surprised that we had done it in record time. We also indicated to him that we don’t want to stay here for perpetuity.”

“Our role primarily is to draft a new constitution and hand it over to the state authorities. In drafting this constitution we have looked at the past because the past has helped us look at what we should do and what we should not be doing,” said Transformation Committee secretary Prakash Schaffter, throwing more light into the shape of the constitution. “Like all other cricket boards around the world we are going to have a combination of elected and appointed directors. The independent directors will be experts in their particular fields,”

Transformation Committee chairman Eran Wickramaratne was hopeful the constitution can be tabled by July.              

“We been here only seven weeks. We have taken into consideration the proposals sent by the people and all the previous proposals. We have gone into the constitutional process with PC Dinal Phillips. We are looking at professionalizing Sri Lanka Cricket as an institution,” he said.

Transformation Committee member Sidath Wettimuny speaking on the cricket side said that steps have been taken to improve cricket coaching, curating, and umpiring and refereeing. He said that SLC had sought the assistance of ICC's senior curator Andy Atkinson to assist local curators prepare good pitches.

With regard to the role of Player Managers, Wettimuny said, “When I addressed the 46  contracted players I told them in no uncertain terms that player managers cannot get close to anybody at Sri Lanka Cricket or the selectors. If we feel there is any interference, the player will be sent home. It’s a strictly commercial thing the player manager can do with the player. The committee is in the process of bringing in a set of regulations for player managers and given clear guidelines as to what their role is.”