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Sunday, 11 December 2011

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Upali Dharmadasa 12 strategies and Sumathipala 10



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.

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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