Sri Lanka Cricket initiates defamation lawsuit against Sports Minister
Nov 15, 2023
Colombo [Sri Lanka], November 15 : Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has initiated a defamation lawsuit against the country's Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe, continuing the crisis of cricket in the country following a disastrous ICC Cricket World Cup campaign in India, as per ESPNcricinfo.
Sri Lanka finished in the ninth spot in the tournament with just two wins in nine matches. They lost the rest of the matches and missed out on the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 slot.
SLC currently stands suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC), at the request by SLC's officials only to impress on the government that ICC will not tolerate any kind of political interference in the affairs of the board, as per ESPNCricinfo.
SLC and the sports minister are at war in various aspects. The sports minister Ranasinghe has vowed to fight a stay order given by the Sri Lankan court on last Tuesday, which removed the interim committee appointed by the minister to replace the SLC. The board was essentially reinstated and so were the sacked board officials.
"In response to the persistent and damaging defamatory statements made by the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Roshan Ranasinghe, Sri Lanka Cricket has taken a decisive step to protect its reputation and integrity," a board release said.
"Therefore, on the 13th November 2023, [SLC officials] jointly filed a defamation lawsuit in the District Court of Colombo, seeking damages amounting to 2.4 billion rupees on behalf of the Sri Lanka Cricket," added the release.
The release made no mentions of statements SLC alleges to be defamatory, but comments that have been noticed likely came on Saturday when Ranasinghe during a press conference accused the board of corruption, mismanagement, etc. The minister has been accusing the board of corruption for around an year, but has done so inside the Parliaments where the parliamentary privilege protects him from defamation lawsuits.
Under Sri Lanka's sports law, in place since 1973, the sports minister has a range of powers over SLC and other sports bodies of the country.
SLC is seeking assurance from the top brass of Sri Lanka government, that there will be no further political interference, which will help in lifting of the suspension by ICC.
