After reaching an agreement with the nation’s sports
ministry about a dispute involving the rearrangement of the domestic
tournaments, Sri Lanka Cricket has resumed its domestic cricket season, which
was put on hold nearly three weeks ago. As a result, on Friday, September 22,
the Major Club three-day competition and the Tier B Club three-day tournament
will both resume.
“Consent was given by the Ministry of Sports and
Youth, subsequent to a meeting held between Sri Lanka Cricket and the Ministry
of Sports,” an SLC media release stated. “Following the meeting, in a
letter addressed to Sri Lanka Cricket, the Ministry of Sports and Youth further
clarified the direction given by the Director General of Sports pertaining to
the ratification of an appeal advisory committee decision by the Hon. Minister
of Sport and Youth Affairs, which resulted in domestic cricket tournaments being
halted, until further clarification was sought on the matter.”
Sources understand that the ministry had agreed to
comply by the Court of Appeal’s ruling to permit the competition to continue
without interruption until a verdict is made in the matter of Gesto Cricket
Club (GCC) versus SLC, however the specific details of the meeting have not
been made public.
On September 26, the case—in which GCC had argued
against a decision made at an SLC Emergency General Meeting to alter the
tournament structure—is scheduled to be revisited.
The Sri Lankan sports ministry got involved in the
situation after GCC, which was dissatisfied with the court’s decision to let
the tournament go on while the issue was being heard, made a direct appeal to
the ministry.
This resulted in a disagreement between the SLC and
the sports ministry, the latter of which asserted that any modification to a
tournament’s structure would have to be made through an amendment to the SLC
constitution, which itself could only be made only with the approval of the
sports ministry.
The SLC countered, saying that since the planned
changes had been approved by the SLC membership, it had been implemented
despite not receiving a response from the sports minister after writing to him.
This opinion was supported by the fact that the structure that was changed was
one that had already been in existence for a number of years; therefore, SLC
thought it was reasonable to think that this would not be a problem. In
addition, there is debate in some circles over whether the sports ministry actually
needs to give its formal consent before changing the format of an event.