Sri Lanka sports minister vows to resign if players went to nightclub during T20 World Cup

“I challenged them (critics) to prove it, and I will resign if they can prove it,” Fernando said in a recent statement.

Fernando also added that the social media criticism of team following the campaign wasn’t the way through, “As a country, we need to help the children.”

The incident in question is from one of Sri Lanka’s practice games ahead of the tournament, in which – reports suggest – the team had arrived late after a late night out on the match eve.

Fernando had taken over the office from Ranasinghe in November 2023 after the latter was removed from the post by president Ranil Wickremesinghe following his action to sack the Sri Lanka Cricket management and appoint an interim committee.

Sri Lanka were knocked out of the tournament from the group stage after only winning one of their four games. The Wanindu Hasaranga-led side lost against arch rivals Bangladesh as well as South Africa in their first two games before their match against Nepal was washed out. Even an 83-win against Netherlands wasn’t enough to see them through to Super-8.