Price Water Coopers report eagerly awaited by SLC to settle accounts dispute

By Lal Gunasekera

CRICKET: Price Water Coopers, internationally renowned audit firm, are scheduled to hand over their report on the financial situation confronting Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) next week and this report will "put straight" if there were any irregularities or not at SLC.

The Chairman of the SLC Interim Committee, Arjuna Ranatunga, told the 'Sunday Observer' that all doubts could be dispelled by this report from Price Water Coopers which is eagerly awaited by all and sundry.

SLC is surviving on a Rs. 600 million bank overdraft with losses amounting to nearly Rs. 2.3 billion, and the shortfall, according to the Secretary of SLC's Interim Committee, K. Mathivanan, is mainly due to lack of revenue for 2006 when the Triangular between Sri Lanka, South Africa and India had to be called off due to a bomb explosion in Greenpath (Colombo) in which Pakistan's Ambassador to Sri Lanka was targeted. However, four of his body guards were killed.

Due to the abandonment of this Triangular, SLC, also failed to recover the insurance cover of US Dollars 11 million, although the then Chairman of the Interim Committee, Jayantha Dharmadasa, was optimistic of obtaining. Dharmadasa was appointed in 2004 with Ranatunga under whom Sri Lanka won the World Cup in 1996, being appointed as the Chairman last month (January). Ranatunga is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the present government.

SLC also had to pay off Rs. 500 million to Nimbus TV during the Interim Committee under Vijay Malalasekera where US Dollars 5 million was paid as legal fees.

Ranatunga's administration are also reviewing the current TV deal with the Dubai based Ten Sports Channel for "home" internationals where the US Dollars 50 million deal ends next year (2009), but understood to have been extended upto 2012 with "proper bidding" procedure.

When Arjuna Ranatunga was appointed Chairman of the Interim Committee of SLC by President Mahinda Rajapaksa last month (January), he (Ranatunga) had promised President Rajapaksa to "put the house in order" and this is exactly what Ranatunga is doing. He has brought in fresh blood in the form of Aravinda de Silva, Guy de Alwis and Ashok Pathirana of Softlogic fame into the Interim Committee where the other members are Sujeewa Rajapakse, Sidath Wettimuny, Dian Gomes and Premasara Eppasinghe.

Aravinda de Silva's "Cricket Pathway" together with Coca-Cola Beverages is also a stop to discover hidden talent in the rural and suburban areas of the country with regional clinics of three-day duration for these talented youngsters between 15 and 17 years starting next month (March) in Dambulla and also extending to Colombo in May-June, Kandy in June, Galle in July, Dambulla (covering the Northern and Eastern Provinces) in August and Colombo again in September.

Each clinic will have 72 youngsters based on performance and consistency through their schools.