Jay Shah doesn’t run Sri Lankan cricket: President

Colombo, Nov 23 (Firstpost) - President Ranil Wickremesinghe in an exclusive conversation with Firstpost‘s Palki Sharma said BCCI secretary Jay Shah does not run Sri Lankan cricket.

Former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga’s comments on BCCI secretary Jay Shah “running” Sri Lankan cricket has caused a major storm across the cricketing world, especially in cricket-mad India which happens to be a superpower of the sport.

The comments have caused an uproar to the point that Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe himself offered an apology. 

The President told Firstpost that he has since had a conversation with Shah on the matter.

“No, Jay Shah doesn’t run Sri Lankan cricket. They think that Jay Shah is supporting the Cricket Board. But I spoke to Jay Shah and felt sorry that his name had been dragged in and apologised.

“He said, ‘My position is, whoever is the legal body, I will back then. If this lot is the legal body I will back them. If the other lot is the legal body, I will back them. If there’s a third group that’s the legal body, I will back them. That’s not decided by me, that’s decided by ICC,” Wickremesinghe said.

Ranatunga had made the comments a day after the ICC’s suspension of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the richest sporting body in the crisis-stricken island nation, due to political interference.

Reacting to the ICC’s decision, President Wickramasinghe added he knew the country’s board was going to get suspended.

“The opposition has said that the Board of Control has written to the ICC and has said to suspend Sri Lanka. The leader of the opposition gave me a set of letters, I haven’t looked at it. But ICC was anyway going to suspend Sri Lanka, I knew that.

“We were trying to save the U-19 matches, we were going to have tourism, but that didn’t work out so we lost on all that. I am waiting to see the outcome or the decision of the courts regarding the interim committee. Once that is done, we’ll have to start talking with the ICC to ensure that Sri Lanka can host matches again.

“As far as the cricket board is concerned, there is a committee of ministers that are going to it, which will recommend legislation. They’ve spoken to the board members as well as to the interim committee members, but I want to bring legislation which will take away the power of the minister to intervene and interfere in politics,” Wickramasinghe added.