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Journalism of Courage
COLOMBO, MARCH 20: Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister SB Dissanayake has denied that President Chandrika Kumaratunga was interfering with the crisis-ridden Cricket Control Board.
Dissanayake told a weightlifting championship in central Sri Lanka on Saturday that he would quit if the President tried to interfere with cricket, the `Daily Mirror’ here said.
“The President does not know about cricket and she has no interest in it. But the day that she interferes in its affairs I will resign,” the minister said.
Neither the minister nor the sports ministry here was immediately available for comment.
The minister’s reported remarks came four days after President Kumaratunga said businessmen should not be involved in running Sri Lankan cricket’s ruling body.
The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) had not been audited “in any serious way for many years” and it had become an “interesting place for people to reside in,” Kumaratunga said.
She said she wanted retired cricketers or sportsmen to run the cricket Board which had an income of Rs. 800 million.
Elections to the cricket Board last year were marred by allegations of violence and rigging and following a court challenge, Sports Minister Dissanayake appointed an interim board to run the cricket administration.
However, that panel also ran into rough weather recently over differences with the Sports Minister. Fresh elections due this year have been postponed indefinitely.
A close relative of Kumaratunga contested last year’s elections but was defeated by a businessman who was the incumbent president of the Board. That election is now the subject of a court case.
