Sri Lankan has now officially documented that the smallest full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has got the highest number of votes that invariably creates the base for vote buying to enter the corruption-ridden swashbuckling, financially prosperous boardrooms of Sri Lanka Cricket that has been the root cause of nepotism in one of the country’s top money spinning public enterprises.
While neighbouring India, the most populous of the cricket playing nations with nearly 1.4 billion people has got just 38 votes on offer, Sri Lanka has a whopping 147 votes for casting and the figures have been presented to the government by a Probe Committee headed by Minister of Foreign Relations Ali Sabry set up last November by President Ranil Wickremasinghe for an overall of corruption-scarred Sri Lanka Cricket that runs the country’s only World Cup sport.
The Ali Sabry Report also notes that geographically the largest cricket playing full ICC member Australia with a population of 26 million has the lowest eight votes.
The Ali Sabry Report is the third Document after the Auditor General’s Report and the Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena Report inside two years that calls for a clean-up of Sri Lanka Cricket’s administration.
Although it marks the first time that the number of votes available in each of the ICC full member or Test playing countries has been placed before the eyes of the Sri Lankan government, the figures have been well documented in correspondence prepared by former administrators of SLC and retired players alike but none of it was taken seriously until now.
Sri Lanka Cricket in the aftermath of a scandalous-ridden T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November 2022 where night clubbing, casinos brawls and sex escapades on the part of players, came under widespread public probe while another Report revealed officials busted millions on what was said to be a joy ride.
Among the changes called for in the Ali Sabry Report are for funds to be solely for cricket development and not for personal reasons or gain, change of Constitution for reasons of accountability and transparency and a chop down of the Executive Committee to 18 members made up of club representatives, players, coaches and intellectual professionals of high standing.
Action to be taken against corrupt cricket officials named in the Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena Report and the Auditor General’s Report have also been documented.
Amid the punching and counter punching the Sri Lanka youth team for under 19 World Cup made one of the quietest departures for South Africa in the early hours of Thursday as a few onlookers on the street bore witness to the future of the country’s only pride that sets it apart from the rest.
The looks on the faces of the stragglers said it all as they took their seats on a team bus headed for the airport. It should have been their home World Cup and the teenagers will have only a memory to rub off.
