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Sri Lanka Cricket's first election by secret ballot concluded peacefully
with Jayantha Dharmadasa and Nishantha Ranatunga being elected
uncontested for the two most powerful posts of president and secretary
respectively.
The majority of office-bearers elected for the main posts last year were
retained, with the exception of Asanga Seneviratne, who lost his seat
as vice-president to Mohan de Silva. That was the only major upset in an
otherwise straightforward contest. K Mathivanan retained his seat as
one of the vice-presidents by polling the highest with 113 votes. Nuski
Mohamed retained his seat as treasurer when he beat his opponent Eastman
Narangoda by 32 votes (87-55).
The election was supervised by officials of the Elections Department at the request of SLC because this was the first time
a secret ballot was being used to elect the office-bearers. Although
all the key office-bearer posts barring the president and secretary were
contested, the incumbent office-bearers managed to re-elect themselves
for a two-year term. The official term for the previous year's board was
one year, but due to postponement of elections, their term was
stretched to 15 months.
Jayantha Dharmadasa was appointed
the sole nominee for the position, after the three original candidates
were disqualified, for three different reasons. Thilanga Sumathipala was
first ruled to be contravening
Sri Lanka's sports law, which states no person linked to the betting
industry, media or a sports equipment business may stand for SLC
presidency, before incumbent president Upali Dharmadasa - Jayantha's
brother - and Badureliya Sports Club president Sumith Perera, were
disqualified by the board for falling foul of the SLC constitution.
With no legitimate candidates left standing, SLC's executive then
exercised a constitutional right to appoint their own nominee, after
Jayantha Dharmadasa expressed strong interest in the role, and had
already acquired the documentation that would allow him to stand for
election.
Full list of office bearers |
Jayantha Dharmadasa was SLC interim president from 2005 to 2007, and is
joint managing director of business conglomerate Nawaloka Group,
alongside his brother.
Ranatunga was elected to the post of secretary without contest for the
second year in a row.
He had also served in that role in two interim committees immediately
preceding the 2012 elections, and has been SLC's secretary since 2009.
Before last year's election, SLC had been run by a series of interim
committees for seven years.
Seneviratne, who was one of two vice-presidents elected last year lost
his seat by 13 votes to de Silva, a former SLC president. Silva polled
81 to Seneviratne's 68. Hirantha Perera and Ajitha Pasqual also retained
their posts as assistant secretary and assistant treasurer
respectively.
Perera polled 79 against his opponent Bandula Dissanayake, who managed
51 while 14 votes were rejected. A third contestant, Priyantha Soysa,
withdrew. Pasqual won by the thinnest of margins against Irwin
Jayawardene (71-68) with five votes being rejected.
Outgoing president Upali Dharmadasa will automatically serve in the next
Executive Committee as the immediate past president, making it the
first instance of two brothers serving in an SLC committee.
There were contests for the tournament, umpires and tour organising
committees while the sponsorship committee went uncontested for lack of
candidates.
The new board is another major change in a season of flux for SLC. In the past three months, SLC has appointed a new CEO,
two new captains (Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal) and a new fast
bowling coach (Chaminda Vaas), while the sports minister named a new
selection panel, headed by Sanath Jayasuriya, in February.
The elections were conducted amid tight security at the Bandaranaike
Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo. It commenced at
10.30am and lasted a marathon eight hours.
Additional inputs by Andrew Fidel Fernando
Feeds: Sa'adi Thawfeeq
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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