News Item in Cricket Age, 29 November 2018
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s world cup winning captain and current Prime Minister, recently came hard on corruption in cricket. One of the most respected voice in world cricket, Imran Khan said that the game must be play in right spirit. “Any person, who has the slightest connection to betting, will be removed from the cricket in Pakistan” he said in a statement.
Former Sri Lanka Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake gave an interesting prospective [on this item of news] by seeing the current status of the game in the Island. “In our country, we made a betting business owner as the head of cricket” he posted on his official Facebook account. Those, who knows the insides of Sri Lanka cricket, immediately got the point that Dissanayake was referring to former Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) president Thilanga Sumathipala.
It is noteworthy that Sumathipala has always been accused of being involved in betting and gambling business. Even though Sumathipala has always denied it, it is a open fact that his family runs the gambling business in Sri Lanka through the Sporting Star outlet.
Moreover, the animosity between Sumathipala and Dissanayake is also well documented. In the past, they had been at loggerheads against each other many times. In March this year, both were involved in a ugly fight outside the parliament.
Sumathipala was thrown out of the SLC in May, when former SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga dragged him into Court over unethical appointment of the election committee.