The Island
An attempt by Sri Lanka Cricket to offer an all expenses paid trip to Sports Minister C.B. Ratnayake to the Caribbean was refused by the Minister, The Island learns.
It’s learnt that SLC offered three all expenses paid tickets to the Minister and his family, a trick that SLC officials had played successfully with Minister Ratnayake’s predecessor.
The offer had come just prior to the World T-20 Tournament in the Caribbean, but the Minister had refused the offer.
At a media briefing yesterday Minister Ratnayeke slammed SLC claiming it to be the third most corrupt institution in the country.
The hierarchy of SLC has engaged in various dubious activities and despite the media highlighting them the government had turned a blind eye to the allegations.
SLC Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga has been on 30 overseas trips since being appointed to the Interim Committee last year. He has also claimed a massive 5.2 million Rupees as pocket money. A popular joke doing rounds is that even George W. Bush wouldn’t have undertaken 30 overseas trips in a year.
SLC Chairman D.S. de Silva, meanwhile, has offered the two most lucrative positions at the board to his nephews. While one of his nephews; Suraj Dandeniya functions as a Director of the World Cup Secretariat for a princely monthly salary of close to Rs. 600,000 his cousin Kapila Dandeniya is employed for another fantastic monthly salary of Rs. 225,000 at the World Cup Secretariat.
Minister Ratnayake promised to clean up the mess at SLC and several heads are expected to roll at the cricket headquarters.
The first set of changes happened with the Minister replacing the entire selection committee headed by former fast bowler Ashantha de Mel. Selection duties have been handed over to a committee headed by former batting great Aravinda de Silva.