Former Sri Lanka opening batsman and one-time team manager Charith Senanayake wants the owners of what has become the island’s flagship domestic cricket showpiece, the Lanka Premier League (LPL), investigated for shady connections that he claimed were putting lives at risk.
The LPL, that has snowballed into a headline-grabbing player-nudging event of Sri Lanka Cricket, became a contentious event since it hit the stage four years ago when it was alleged some of the team owners were connected to the illegal betting industry which has been outlawed by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
But the latest bombshell by Senanayake has blown open another layer of secrecy surrounding the LPL which is yet to be officially sanctioned by the Sports Ministry and his disclosure coincided with the visit of the ICC’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Allardice to discuss lifting a ban on Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
“People connected to the Mumbai bombings (2008) are having stakes in the Lanka Premier League (LPL). Half of the teams in the LPL are owned by them and they cannot even enter India. I have brought this to the notice of the Sports Ministry,” Senanayake told a Press conference almost at the same time Allardice met Sports Minister Harin Fernando in Colombo.
Last year’s LPL featured the top shelf of Sri Lanka’s T20 players who teamed up with overseas professionals making the tournament surpass all other domestic events in the country where cricketer earnings and team ownership revenue can reach superior levels.
Senanayake is a stalwart of the Colombo Cricket Club better known as CCC and called on the Sports Ministry to probe why a club that occupies a land on government lease is allowed to run a dictatorship permitted by the parent body SLC with an election to select its office-bearers not held in 15 years and its Trustees and Life members sidelined.
Former Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe last year revealed that the LPL was unlawful and run without the sanctioning of his Ministry following allegations that bookie owners and betting agents were taken on board as team sponsors.
Ranasinghe speaking at the Press conference demanded that the government through the Auditor General’s Department investigate the assets both locally and overseas of cricket officials which he said were acquired through dubious means.
