A mid-season move by the tournament committee of the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) to introduce a play-off system to determine which teams get relegated to lower divisions has come under criticism from multiple schools, who allege the change was made with vested interests.

The SLSCA Tournament Committee had issued a letter to schools prior to the start of the 2022/23 tournament in November last year, stating that promotion and relegation of teams between divisions would be made as the norm – the bottom two teams dropping down to the lower division, and the top two teams of the lower division moving up.

In December, after the tournament was well underway, another letter was issued by the SLSCA Tournament Committee stating that six teams – effectively a third of the 18 teams that play in a division – will be included into a new play-off style system to determine which teams move down the school cricket ladder.

It is understood that atleast three schools oppose this mid-season rule change.  

Currently, the 18 teams that play in each division are divided into groups of three and under this new system the two bottom placed teams in each group will be drawn into this playoff round.

Accordingly, the four best placed amongst those six teams (labelled as 5-1, 5-2, 5-3 and 6-1) will be virtually afforded two opportunities to remain in the division, while the two bottom teams (6-2 and 6-3) will have one match at the end of the playoffs to avoid relegation.

While the playoff round itself is not being criticized by schools, the fact that this change of rules came after the tournament started has led to objections.

“Any change in rules should have been made at the start of the season, or for next season – not during an ongoing season,” Dinesh Kumarasinghe, Director of Sports of S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia, one of the schools that are against this change, told the Daily Mirror.  

It has also led to suggestions that there is a vested interest behind the move, particularly suggesting at the affiliation of the President of the SLSCA Thilak Watthuhewa, who is also the Principal of Nalanda College.

Nalanda College are currently in fifth in Group Z in the Division A Tier 1, and with just one match left in their First Round campaign, are a realistic candidate for relegation.

However, the General Secretary of the SLSCA, JKS Indrajith told the Daily Mirror that the move came as a consequence of a recommendation from the now-defunct Technical Advisory Committee to former Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa, who suggested more emphasis be given to one-day matches and thereby reduce the number of two-day matches that each team plays from eight to five.

“A recommendation was made to reduce the number of two-day matches and give more emphasis to one day games to better prepare our national under 19 team for the youth World Cup,” Indrajith said.

“After we made this change, several schools came and spoke to the SLSCA Executive Committee and told us that the change would prove to be unfair in the event that a school lost any of their matches due to adverse weather and they would be in danger of relegation. Once a school is relegated it is difficult for them to come back up immediately,” he further added.

“So a decision was made to introduce this play-off system, consisting of the bottom four teams of each group, in a manner that we believe is fair to determine which team should stay up and be relegated.”

He refuted the claims that the change was made due to the poor season of one school, or that any undue influence was being placed by a party that has vested interest.

“Yes, there have been such suggestions, but I can say there has been no influence by Mr. Watthuhewa, who not even a member of the tournament committee,” Indrajith added.

However, Kumarasinghe said that such a big deviation from the norm should have come after discussion with all schools involved.

“Such decisions should be made not based on the complaints of and officials from a handful of schools, but should involve a discussion with all schools that can be impacted,” Kumarasinghe added.

Whatever the intent of the SLSCA in making this decision, untoward or otherwise, implementing this change midseason could come at the benefit of some teams over others, and sets an uneasy precedent that can warp the playing field in future during the course of the tournament.