Sri Lanka board in limbo after legal defeat

An interim administration is set to take over Sri Lankan cricket on Wednesday after the country's cricket board lost its latest legal battle.

Sports Minister Laksham Kiriella said he would appoint an interim committee after the Colombo District Court ruled that the board could not elect a new administration on Saturday.

"I have no choice but to dissolve the board and appoint an interim committee," Kiriella said.

Kiriella declined to say when the committee would be appointed or who would be on it, but several former players told Reuters they had been approached by the Sports Ministry.

Sri Lankan cricket was run for several months by an interim committee when the board was smothered by litigation after an election was disrupted by gun-toting intruders in 1999.

Lawyers for board president Thilanga Sumathipala tried unsuccessfully to overturn Monday's court order saying that notice for the election was not properly issued.

"It is the fault of the board for not furnishing accounts properly," said Kiriella.

On Monday, the board sacked chief executive Dhammika Ranatunga on charges of "a financial nature" soon after his brother, Prassanna, announced he would not seek re-election as vice-president because of corruption in the cricket administration.

Both men, brothers of Arjuna Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to their 1996 World Cup victory, are members of Sri Lanka's most powerful cricketing family which has been involved in a long-running feud with the board.

Mail Cricket Editor