Sri Lanka Cricket Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga faced fresh allegations yesterday after the President of SLC, Jayantha Dharmadasa, alleged that the Secretary had violated the SLC Constitution and abused power! Ranatunga’s conduct as a cricket administrator has been questioned in several quarters over the years.
Star cricketer Kumar Sangakkara has been one of his main critics once calling Ranatunga the ‘appointed Secretary’ of SLC.
The thought that Ranatunga enjoyed overwhelming support at the board level has been faced with some challenge in recent weeks and Dharmadasa’s letter yesterday was proof that he is under tremendous pressure.
Dharmadasa was responding to a letter written by SLC Vice President Mohan de Silva and was copied to all Ex-Co members.
“Having been the Honourary Secretary for two terms and the President for one term as you say in your letter, you more than most persons should have been aware of the provisions of the Constitution. Your deafening silence when the Honourary Secretary deliberately violated the Constitution and abrogated all powers wrongfully to himself is mystifying to say the least. Either you did not know the provisions of the Constitution or you deliberately allowed the Secretary to violate same without bringing it to his attention,” Dharmadasa says in a strong-worded letter.
Allegations against Ranatunga include abusive manner in which he addresses the employees. “As for my part, I expected all members of the august body of the Executive Committee to conduct themselves as gentlemen in the discharge of their duties,” Dharmadasa’s letter goes on to add.
“Unfortunately my kindness was taken as a weakness resulting in my having to take very stern measures to remedy the situation which now I regret to say that you are revolting against,” he further states.
Dharmadasa also rebukes Mohan de Silva for his inaction when Ranatunga initiated a disciplinary inquiry against Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene a few days after Sri Lanka’s triumph in the World T-20.
“The most reprehensible aspect of your conduct was your silence and inaction when there was an attempt to harass two of our World Cup winning heroes namely, Mahela Jayawardane (sic) and Kumar Sangakkara by the Secretary summoning them for a disciplinary inquiry no sooner they came back from their historic triumph from Bangladesh. There was a massive outrage expressed by the public and several very important persons in the country expressed their concern. But you shamelessly looked the other way. Fortunately I had to intervene and put a stop to this purported witch-hunt.
“I would suggest that instead of being an alter ego to a third party you conduct yourself in a manner befitting a former president of Sri Lanka Cricket and take your current position of Vice President of Sri Lanka Cricket more seriously instead of indulging yourself in petty politics. It is not individuals that matter but the game of cricket as a whole and we owe that much to the people of Sri Lanka who love this game so much,” the letter states.
