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Sports Minister (C) and newly appointed NSC President Arjuna Ranatunga (L) openly slam SLC
Following the ACC’s decision to change venues, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) are in a dilemma awaiting approval from the Sri Lanka Sports Ministry to host the Asian Cup tournament in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to fuel shortages and the politics of the decision. Unrest, from Sri Lanka.
The broadcaster then raised initial objections to the competition in Sri Lanka, citing its commercial infeasibility.
The SLC remains the host of the UAE event, but its officials are currently in Sri Lanka and cannot travel to the West Asian emirate to make logistical and other operational arrangements for the event without ministerial approval.
The Asian Cup was due to take place in Sri Lanka later this month, with hosting rights reserved, but those rights could be lost if visiting players and media cannot be arranged.
In an email to ACC chairman Jay Shah, Star India was the organizer of the event when he called for the event to be moved from Sri Lanka. “Uncertainties in many aspects of the game will also affect potential commercialization, putting pressure on ACC partners, including rights holders. Given this situation, we strongly urge the ACC to consider moving the 2022 Asian Cup to another nation.”
However, the decision to move the venue to the UAE was recently questioned in parliament by opposition lawmakers, a position that was later backed by Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe and National Sports Council chairman Arjuna Ranatunga, who said the SLC did not have enough lobbying to remain in the game in Sri Lanka. They questioned the SLC saying why Australia and Pakistan could not host the Asian Cup if they could visit Sri Lanka in a crisis.
“These are ambitious allegations to discredit the agency with ulterior motives,” said SLC secretary Mohan de Silva.
“It’s a pity to see the person in charge representing the people of our country speak without verifying the facts and mislead the public.”
He said the SLC had lobbied hard to play in Sri Lanka given the impact of the country’s weak economy, but the general instability and insecurity forced ACC members to move the game elsewhere.
“We know that if we host games here it will have a positive impact on the country’s economy, but organiser Star Sports has strong reservations about it,” de Silva said.
The ministry later wrote to the ACC chief asking for an explanation of the venue change. The ACC chief then wrote to the sports minister explaining the circumstances that forced its members to decide to switch venues, sources said, despite the SLC’s vigorous lobbying to host games in Sri Lanka.
SLC said that as an event host, ACC needs to consider broader factors, including the needs of all stakeholders and commercial rights partners, which are critical to the success of the event.
“Unfortunately, the current situation in Sri Lanka is not conducive to winning the confidence of key ACC stakeholders in such an important multi-team tournament,” ACC Chairman Jay Shah wrote to SLC Chairman Shammi Silva.
Following the ACC’s decision, SLC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Emirates Cricket Council to work together on operational and logistical arrangements. SLC sources confirmed that despite the beleaguered and absent UAE local officials, they will still organise matches “remotely” with the support of the UAE board and the ACC.
According to the order in which the Asian Cup was held, the tournament was originally scheduled to be held in 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Asian Cup was first postponed to 2021 and Sri Lanka will host the event. Later it was postponed to 2022.
The sports minister also delayed the approval of Sri Lanka’s T20 team for the 2022 Asian Cup, saying he did not receive the selected team in time.
As the host, Sri Lanka will receive $6.5 million, but Sri Lanka’s hotels and spectators will lose a lot due to the venue change due to the economic and political crisis when the decision to change the venue was made. The Asian Cup was originally scheduled to start on August 27 and run until September 11.
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