Sri Lanka Cricket files anti-graft commission plaint against ex-sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe

Colombo: The Sri Lanka Cricket on Monday filed a complaint with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption against the country’s former sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe over the alleged misuse of funds released by the SLC to develop other disciplines. The Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe had removed Ranasinghe from the post on 27 November. The decision to file this complaint stems from the concern that Roshan Ranasinghe MP has not appropriately disclosed the utilization of funds allocated by SLC for the intended purposes, the Lankan board said in a press release. This comes in the wake of a discernible disparity between the information disclosed to the media by Ranasinghe MP and the response received by SLC under a Right to Information (RTI) application, outlining the specifics of the expenditures made, the release added. The SLC’s move came ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled hearing by a court of appeal of the case filed by SLC on Ranasinghe’s decision to sack the governing body and appoint an interim committee headed by World Cup-winning former captain Arjuna Ranatunga. The court is expected to hear the view of Harin Fernando, Ranasinghe’s successor in the sports ministry, on the gazette issued by his predecessor sacking the SLC management under Shammi Silva. Ranasinghe’s move to fire the Silva administration came after months of a stand-off between them. Ranasinghe based his call on a government audit report that had accused Silva’s SLC management as corrupt. The ICC took immediate action and suspended SLC owing to political interference. This meant that the ICC Under-19 World Cup, which was scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in January, was moved to South Africa.