ICC suspends Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership with immediate effect

The International Cricket Council Board on Friday 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," said ICC in a statement.

The conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC Board in due course, it added.



The ICC Board is set to meet on November 21, after which the future course of action is expected to be clearer.

Sri Lanka is scheduled to host the ICC Under-19 Men's Cricket World Cup across January and February 2024.

The resolution passed by Sri Lankan parliament amounted to government interference and that was enough ground for the ICC Board to suspend Sri Lanka's membership.

A sequence of events unfolded in Sri Lankan cricket following the team's disappointing run in the ongoing World Cup in India, securing victories in only two out of their nine matches and concluding with a total of four points. Currently the team is positioned at No.8 in the points table.

The leader of the main opposition party, Sajith Premadasa, presented a resolution titled 'the removal of the corrupt SLC (Sri Lanka Cricket) management,' which received support from senior government minister Nimal Siripala de Silva.

Parliament's approval of the resolution came two days after the Court of Appeal reinstated the SLC management led by Shammi Silva on Tuesday.

On Monday, Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe sacked the SLC management and appointed former World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga as head of a seven-member interim committee to govern the cricket board before the Court of Appeal restored it.

While the parliament was debating the resolution, police protection was provided to SLC headquarters.

Several hundred people had turned up near the premises of the SLC headquarters calling for the resignation of the management.