Continuing public protests, a Code of Conduct for cricketers and an Investigative Report compiled by a Supreme Court judge that lies in limbo have coincided with an International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Colombo.
Ironically Sri Lanka is hosting the annual ICC meeting for the first time when the controlling body of cricket in the country has been surviving on a knife’s edge amid an unprecedented call from Parliament for an overall followed by a Probe or Recommendation by retired Supreme Court judge KT Chitrasiri.
Judge KT Chitrasiri’s compilation, a virtual Act for change at an administration that is in the dock over allegations of corruption, match-fixing, financial mismanagement, nepotism and vote-buying, was handed over to the government last February and is still pending in the where-are-they-now files.
But the latest public outrage came in the form of a poster campaign on the streets of Colombo after last year’s widespread protests by anti-corruption activists calling for an ouster of the current administration of Sri Lanka Cricket in a high pitched drama that only resulted in one protagonist, Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe, removed from his post and the other allowed to continue.
Hopes for a continuation at Sri Lanka Cricket backfired as the team produced catastrophic results at two T20 World Cups and one 50-over World Cup inside three years as officials were also accused of failing to put an end to appalling player misbehavior leading to late night clubbing, casino brawls, soliciting female company and a sensational rape case.
But the Players Code of Conduct drawn up by Sri Lanka Cricket telling players to buckle up last week raised more questions two weeks after a news report claimed six members of the team indulged in a drinking binge in the room of one player the night before their opener against South Africa at last month’s T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies.
Sri Lanka Cricket denied the allegation claiming the media report was intended to what it said discredit players and team officials.
The players have now been ordered to present themselves in a way acceptable to the norms of public decency and accountability and told interacting with what is being called Social media is taboo while dressing shabbily in shorts and slippers has no place.
The Code also tells players they cannot interact with their private managers and must stick to night time curfews.
Critics have called the Players Code a mere public bluff to save face as cricket officials continue living on borrowed time while the Chitrasiri Recommendation calls for an 18-member Board of Directors of integrity to run Sri Lanka Cricket of which five of them should be ex-players of a high calibre track record and four other citizens of unblemished record in public life.
