The 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup has been truly eventful. From Kohli scoring his 49th ODI century on his birthday to Angelo Matthews becoming the first-ever player to get ‘timed-out’ in international cricket to Maxwell & Cummins recording the high eight-wicket partnership, the ICC Men’s World Cup has been a full roller coaster ride. But the latest turn of events is the suspension of Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership by ICC with immediate effect. Sri Lanka Cricket or SLC is the cricket governing board of Sri Lanka. On 10th November 2023, ICC issued a statement announcing their decision to suspend SLC. ICC said that SLC has breached its obligation as an ICC member. It has failed to manage its affairs independently and to ensure that there is no government interference in its governance, regulation & administration. While it may seem like that the ICC’s decision is sudden but it’s not. There has been a lot of tension in SLC over the performance of the Sri Lankan team in the current ICC Men’s World Cup. The team has won only 2 of the 9 matches and is ranked 9th on the point chart. On 6th November 2023, Sri Lankan Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe had dismissed SLC management & appointed Arjuna Ranatunga, the former world-cup-winning captain as the head of SLC. But Ranasinghe’s decision was reversed by the Sri Lanka Court of Appeal. Later that same week, both houses of the Sri Lankan parliament unanimously passed the resolution for dismissing SLC. It looks like the ICC is irked by this resolution & the continuous government interference in SLC’s administration and has therefore suspended SLC just like it had suspended Zimbabwe Cricket in 2019. The board has not yet finalized the terms & conditions of the SLC suspension but is scheduled for a meeting on 21st November 2023. The meeting is expected to make the next steps of action clearer as Sri Lanka is scheduled to host the ICC Under-19 Men’s World Cup from January 2024 onwards.

Tags

• sri lanka cricket
• icc
• suspension
• icc world cup

Advertisement