Upali Dharmadasa 12 strategies and Sumathipala 10
By Ranjan Amandappa

Upali Dharmadasa |

Thilanga Sumathipala |
CRICKET: Two former Cricket Board Presidents - Upali Dharmadasa and
Thilanga Sumathipala who are seeking a second term as the Head of Sri
Lanka Cricket announced their election manifesto before the SLC
elections scheduled to be held on January 3, 2012 after a lapse of seven
years.
Nominations will close on December 19 for the much awaited SLC high
profile post of President.
Both Dharmadasa and Sumathipala were in one camp as Vice Presidents
during the 1996 World Cup victory when Ana Punchihewa was the President.
Now the two have decided to go in different directions with the common
concept of developing the game and bringing stability to the
institution, promising to restore the financial mess of SLC.
While Sumathipala expressed that he did not intend to use State Funds
which means public money, to solve the burning financial issue,
Dharmadasa hoped to establish financial stability through a short and
long term basis by bringing back the Indians ,in the near future, a tour
which did not materialise due to unforseen reasons, for a ODI and T20
series and market the televison rights at a higher value and seek better
sponsorship.
Upali Dharmadasa's
strategies
1. Invoke the support of
stakeholders - districts,clubs and affiliates to create a
volunteer force which could provide SLC with great financial
stability.
2. Control of expenditure and cost reduction strategy.
3. Develop school cricket which is the cradle of Sri Lanka
cricket, throughout the country.
4. Prepare a long term development plan for districts,
school cricket in outstations and suburbs of Colombo to
bring youngsters to the national cricket arena with emphasis
in the north and east.
5. Strengthen the domestic cricket structure to support
progress of cricketers from school district level to the
national level.
6. Implement cutting-edge strategies to generate revenue
through sponsorships and other innovative methods.
7. Maximize revenue from sale of television and other rights
of SLC through a transparent process .
8. Develop 'Sri Lanka Cricket' into a marketable brand that
can create new revenue schemes.
9. Use 2012 T20 World Cup as a launching pad for sports
tourism in our country.
10. Adopt the best practices in corporate governance so as
to avoid any conflict of interest and allegations of
corruption that may damage the brand of Sri Lanka cricket
and the nation.
11. Develop a clear strategy for team selection and
succession planning to ensure continuity as well as
sustained performance of Sri Lanka cricket.
12. Upgrade the standard of umpires, coaches and match
referees by harnessing the local talent available and
investing in best of class Human Resources Development.
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Thilanga
Sumathipala's mission has 10 points to build on for the
future of cricket.
1. Ensure the finacial
stability and sustainability of Sri Lanka Cricket.
2. Ensure a stable and transparent administration.
3. Establish a clear policy for national team selection and
discipline.
4. Development of the Sri Lanka 'A'team and junior squads.
5. Improvement of international relationship with other
cricket playing nations.
6. Develop and maintain infrastructure to ensure
international standards.
7. Prepare a long term plan for the development of school
cricket and club cricket.
8. Prepare a long term plan for the improvement of umpiring
and coaching in order to reach world class standards at all
levels to ensure that more Sri Lankans are selected as ICC
officials.
9. Promote transparency, accountability and good corporate
governance.
10. Formulate a code of conduct for national cricketers and
administrators. |
Addressing his club loyalists, Dharmadasa, said that his links with
Sri Lanka Cricket had begun in 1989, and till 1995 he was a
Vice-President and was elected President 1996-1998. He was the last
Interim Committee Chairman till it was dissolved recently in view to
conducting the elections.
Dharmadasa revealed his twelve strategies to resurrect the ailing SLC
with the backing of some past cricketing stalwarts. His trusted
lieutenant - another former Secretary K. Mathivanan seated beside him
who served under his brother Jayantha during his tenure as the SLC
Interim Committee Chairman.
A video footage featuring past President Rienzie Wijetileka,
Secretary S. Skandakumar, former captain and MP Sanath Jayasuriya and
retired champion off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan backing Dharmadasa to
the hilt and urging to support him was also displayed.
He stressed on the burning issue of the SLC finances which seems
disastrous at the moment and said that he had a short term and a long
term plan to solve it.
"At the time I took over as the Interim Committee Chairman in July
2011, India were to tour the island for three Tests and five ODI's and
two T20 matches. A tour by the Indians is always a money spinning one
and generates a lot of revenue more than any other tours to Sri Lanka.
But unfortunately the tour mysteriously did not take place. Only the
three Test matches were given to us.
I made a move in this regard to restore the situation and with Sidath
Wettimuny, Prakash Schaftter - the then secretary and myself, went to
India at our own expense, met the Indian Cricket Board President and
persuaded them to give Sri Lanka at least the five ODI's and three
T20's. Now we are at a juncture where we have achieved three ODIs and
three T20 matches.
I have requested them to increase the ODIs to at least four so that
the revenue we derive out of those matches would be around 15 million
dollars. In the long term plan, he emphasized that the television rights
have been undersold in the past and it is due for renewal in 2013 and he
intends to maximize the revenue from the sale of TV rights through a
process which is transparent and also generate revenue through
sponsorship and other innovative methods.
He added that there are many areas SLC has to exploit and intends to
appoint a competent team which is capable of doing it.
As he took over a few weeks prior to the Australian tour, he
implemented many cost cutting methods which gave SLC a 46 million profit
by reducing a 67 million security budget to 1.5 millions, thus making a
46 million profit.
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