by Champika Fernando

The elective Annual General Meeting of the country’s richest sports body Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is fixed for May 20, six months after its two-year term ended in January this year, the Sunday Times exclusively learns.
Nominations will begin four weeks before the date of election and close a fortnight in advance. The decision was taken at a recent Executive Committee meeting. The SLC is yet to send the notice of AGM to the membership.
The two-year term of the incumbent administrators ended on January 3, but they obtained a mandate from the general membership to continue for six more months.
Government regulations now allow national sports associations to continue till the end of May as opposed to March previously.
Ruling party politician Thilanga Sumathipala who defeated former secretary of SLC Nishantha Ranatunga by an overwhelming majority of 32 votes (88-56) at the last election is likely to throw his hat once again into the ring in anticipation of a second term.
However, the Sumathipala administration was under tremendous public pressure after the national team slid to the ground, losing even to the bottom rankers like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in 2017.
There were also allegations of corruption, match-fixing, resignation of key officials in the coaching staff, selection blunders and lavish expenditures.
Given the public pressure, Sumathipala at a point was contemplating stepping down. But with the performance of the national team now improving, he is keen to contest again.
So far neither the Ranatunga camp nor the Dharmadasa camp has shown any inclination to come forward.