Sri Lanka Premier League delayed

8 July 2011 Last updated at 12:18 GMT Indian players have been prohibited from playing in the Sri Lankan tournament The launch of Sri Lanka's cricket Premier League, due this month, has been postponed until next year.

Officials said the move was prompted by a financial crisis and because India's cricket board opposed the tournament.

"We are finding it difficult to have the premier league without India's support," Sri Lanka Cricket spokesman Brian Thomas said.

Sri Lanka's cricket board has huge debts after co-hosting this year's World Cup with India and Bangladesh.

Last month it sought financial help from the government and state bank.

In June, India's cricket board refused to let the country's players take part because it said the Sri Lankan league was run by a private company. Sri Lanka cricket officials deny this.

The Sri Lankan Twenty20 tournament, modelled on the Indian Premier League, was due to take place between 19 July and 4 August.

The absence of India's stars meant potentially lucrative Indian broadcasting contracts were lost.

"We can't get into more debt," Mr Thomas said.

Cricket in Sri Lanka is going through rough times.

A week ago, the government dissolved the cricket board and appointed a new one amid claims of corruption and mismanagement.

Earlier this week, former captain Kumar Sangakkara criticised corruption and cronyism in the Sri Lankan game, prompting the sports minister to announce an inquiry into his behaviour.

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Sri Lanka names new cricket board

1 July 2011 Last updated at 15:56 GMT Sri Lankan cricket is heavily in debt after co-hosting the 2011 World Cup The Sri Lankan government has dissolved the country's cricket board and appointed a new one amid claims of corruption and mismanagement.

The government says a new board will be elected in January.

Under new rules set by world cricket's governing body, national cricket boards must be elected and free of political interference within two years.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been run by political appointees on a temporary basis for years and is heavily in debt.

The cricket board owes more than $15m after co-hosting this year's World Cup with India and Bangladesh. Last month it sought financial help from the government and state bank.

'Wrong media reports'

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told BBC Sinhala that the interim committee announced on Friday would serve until January when elections would be held.

"As per ICC recommendation we could have run an interim committee until 2013, but we will hold elections in January 2012," he said.

The new committee contains one former national player, Sidath Wettimuny, and three businessmen, headed by Upali Dharmadasa who was also part of the sport's governing body in the 1990s.

The changes come as cricket in Sri Lanka is going through rough times.

In April former national captain Hashan Tillekaratne claimed that match fixing had been a widespread practice in Sri Lankan cricket since 1992.

Shortly after the country co-hosted the World Cup this year, the captain, vice-captain and panel of selectors all resigned.

Although they did not say so, there has been much speculation that they had had enough of political interference in the game, the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says.

Many fans were unhappy when veteran player Sanath Jayasuriya was recently recalled to the squad, apparently by virtue of being a government MP.

There is a widespread feeling that cricket is corruptly and badly run in Sri Lanka, our correspondent says.

But the sports minister denied this. He said accounts of mismanagement in cricket were exaggerated, adding: "There is no financial crisis in the SLC."

Members of both committees would face a parliamentary committee on 6 July to "clear their name from certain wrong media reports", he added.

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S Lanka and India in cricket row

20 June 2011 Last updated at 08:12 GMT Indian players have been prohibited from playing in the Sri Lankan tournament A row has broken out between cricket authorities in India and Sri Lanka over a Sri Lanka Premier League Twenty-20 tournament starting next month.

The Indian cricket board has refused to let 12 players take part because it says the tournament is run by a private company.

Sri Lankan cricket officials deny this.

Earlier this year India refused to let Sri Lankan players leave a similar tournament in India early to prepare for the current tour of England.

Reports say that initially India's cricket board had said it had no problems with its players participating in the inaugural Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) to be played between 19 July and 4 August in Colombo as long as it did not clash with the players' domestic or international schedule.

But the board announced on Saturday that it would not allow its players to participate in the tournament because it was "being organised by a private party".

Indians 'add value'

Sri Lanka cricket official Nishanta Ranatunga told Espncricinfo that the Twenty-20 tournament had been approved by the Sri Lankan cricket board.

A Singapore-based company owns the commercial rights of the tournament, having "won it through a tender process", he said.

Mr Ranatunga said the Sri Lanka board was "surprised and hurt" by India's decision, and would meet on Monday to look at ways to tackle the situation.

"We need to explain the matter to the Indian board and whatever concerns that they have, we need to give them an explanation. It is very important to have them [Indian players] as they add a lot of value and glamour to the tournament."

Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are reportedly among the 12 Indian players who had shown interest in turning up for the tournament.

A number of international players - including Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Shahid Afridi, Daniel Vettori, Kevin O'Brien and Herschelle Gibbs - will be playing in the Twenty20 tournament.

In April Sri Lanka's Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage ordered the players to return from the Indian Premier League to prepare for the tour of England.

But he later backtracked, saying his predecessor Gamini Lokuge had made a 10-year-deal allowing the country's cricketers to play in the Indian Premier League. Mr Lokuge denied the claims.

The delay meant some of Sri Lanka's biggest stars arrived in England with just a few days to prepare before the first Test match.

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