Sri Lanka Cricket suspended by ICC with immediate effect

Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership has been suspended by the International Cricket Council with immediate effect due to a breach of obligations on Friday, November 10. The suspension came in after Sri Lanka’s last World Cup game against New Zealand which the Kiwis came through after a few batting hiccups.

Sri Lanka’s sports minister on Monday, November 6, had sacked the Sri Lankan cricket board after their embarrassing loss to India, appointed an interim committee, and named Arjuna Ranatunga as the captain of the ship.

The suspension came into action after the ICC understood that there was the Sri Lankan government’s interference with the cricket board in all aspects of the cricketing spectrum. The ICC’s quarterly meetings will go as scheduled from November 18-21 but the officials met online to address the situation. The ICC has already informed the SLC and further steps will be pronounced in the quarterly meeting in Ahmedabad.

“The International Cricket Council (ICC) Board has suspended Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership of the ICC with immediate effect. The ICC Board met today and determined that Sri Lanka Cricket is in serious breach of its obligations as a Member, in particular, the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration of cricket in Sri Lanka,” the International Cricket Council said in a statement.

When disaster strikes, it strikes from all corners and Sri Lanka’s pain now deepen after its worst World Cup campaign. Sri Lanka have hardly had the time to recover from the injury blows to the humiliating losses, but the final knockout punch came from the ICC after the membership suspension.

It was quite evident that it was more mental than technical or physical by the way they played but the lack of perforation from the unit did seem wild.