Sri Lanka Cricket is in crisis. With political interference plaguing the cricket board, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has come down hard on the island nation. Earlier, Sri Lanka were ousted from the ICC Cricket World Cup with just two wins in 9 games. They also failed to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. However, the suspension comes at the worst time with just 7 months to go for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
If the ban stays in place, Sri Lanka won’t be playing in T20 WC. The country was also supposed to host the U19 World Cup in January-Feberuary. But now that also looks uncertain. ICC board will meet on Nov 21 to discuss further actions.
The Sri Lanka men’s team have had a forgettable time at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, winning just two of their nine matches and finishing with four points. They sit at No.8 in the points table with three more matches to be played in the league phase.
Following the Cricket World Cup debacle, the Sri Lankan government sacked the entire cricket board. However, the island nation’s apex court reinstated the official soon after.
ICC Statement:
“The International Cricket Council (ICC) Board has suspended Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership of the ICC with immediate effect.
The ICC Board met today and determined that Sri Lanka Cricket is in serious breach of its obligations as a Member, in particular, the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration of cricket in Sri Lanka. The conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC Board in due course.”
SLC behind its own suspension?
However, what may come as a surprise is that it was Sri Lanka Cricket board that asked for its own suspension. Shammi Silva, the current SLC President, attended Friday’s ICC meeting and asked to take extreme step as per an ESPNCricinfo report.
Sri Lanka are only the 2nd full-member board to be suspended by the ICC. In 2019, ICC suspended Zimbabwe cricket for government interference.
T20 World Cup fate in limbo
As per the suspension, Sri Lanka won’t be able to play any ICC events until the ban is lifted. They also won’t be getting any funds from the ICC.
And that is bad news. The country is recovering from an economic crisis and depends a lot on the ICC revenue share. Furthermore, the ban will have far-reaching implications with the immediate concern being T20 World Cup 2024.
Sri Lanka qualified for the tournament based on their performance in T20 WC 2022. However, now, as the team set to undergo another round of overhaul, they face an uncertain future.
