Beleaguered cricket officials overcame all visible threats and even a feared government takeover as they pulled off an overwhelming one-sided victory for a third term running at the Jiac Hilton Hotel in Colombo yesterday.
The occasion was an election that had no opponents in the ring with rival factions either opting to stay away from possible defeat or preferring to remain silent and passive in a no-win situation.
The election took place amid calls for a change in an administrative system and a check on voting anomalies by a group outside the portals of Sri Lanka Cricket offices while Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe could not match his words with deeds after threatening to impose his Ministerial authority.
But the re-elected cricket head Shammi Silva and his Committee had the last laugh last morning dressed in their Sunday best with nothing to confess.
“We concluded the election without any issues. With the support of the International Cricket Council (ICC) we were able to present our grievances and come to an amicable settlement with the Sports Minister to work for the good of cricket,” said reelected secretary Mohan de Silva, a veteran of many an administration.
Their new two-year lease comes just weeks after the ICC decided to increase its funding towards the 12 Test-playing nations that will snowball Sri Lanka Cricket’s coffers by a whopping Rs.8.6 billion a year for the next four years.
Shammi Silva did not wish to hide the fact that while he is the most influential sports administrator in the country his organization is the envy of many seeking to gain a foothold in one of the richest public institutions in the country.
“Most of the people (who call for change) are trying to get in because of the money and they have past records. Thank God our stakeholders know what is happening. We are an elected body and the ICC recognisers only elected bodies,” said Silva.
He revealed Sri Lanka Cricket has 35 million US dollars that could increase to 75 million US dollars over the next two years that he said will be used for development activities and payments to players.