Minister gives SLC seven days to respond to auditor general’s report

November 22, 2024

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Minister gives SLC seven days to respond to auditor general’s report

August 09, 2019

A seven-day period has been given to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to reply to the forensic report observations of the auditor general, Sports Minister Harin Fernando said yesterday. “We have received 2,000 pages of the draft observation by the auditor general. This report is only observations of the auditor general.

“Sri Lanka Cricket needs to answer to five key points raised within seven days. We have sent this document through the secretary of the Ministry of Sports on Wednesday,” the minister said. The key points raised are lease agreement of the land to build the High Attitude Centre and Cricket University for local and international players, international television rights, national team, head coach appointments and local television rights.

The minister further said the auditor general will be informed after receiving the responses from SLC in order to come to a conclusion within two weeks. “If former coaches Paul Fabrace and Graeme Ford were sacked overnight then who made such a contract between Hathurusingha and Sri Lanka Cricket. I don’t have any issue with anyone including Chandika Hathurusinha and I only requested to re-negotiate the contract,” he said. According to Sports Law, the minister of sports has the right to make a recommendation when it comes to problems in sports bodies.

He said: “Pakistan sacked all the coaching staff and even India was renegotiating their contract with the coach after reaching the semi-finals.

“With Hathurusinha’s coaching only 24 matches were won out of 67 including Tests, ODI and T20 and this shows only a 35% winning rate.

“If anything wrongful is happening in Sri Lanka the people will blame the respective minister and so I don’t need to get a bad name,” minister Fernando said.