Sri Lanka Cricket president Thilanga Sumathipala has said that Sri Lanka Cricket is in the right direction towards achieving the twin goals of sporting and financial success.
Addressing the employees of Sri Lanka Cricket, while commencing work for the year 2018 at the SLC, Sumathipala said within two years of his election, he along with the SLC employees was able to turnaround Sri Lanka Cricket’s financial position from poor to strong.
“When we took over two years ago, SLC was indebted for a sum of Rs. 5 billion and we were in a quandary as to how we are going to turnaround SLC, now, after two years, I am happy to say we are making profits”, Sumathipala said. “When we entered the fray, ICC had only allocated US$ 80 million for the members during its paying cycle, but with the efforts I made to strengthen the relationship with other members it yielded a collaborative effort to increase it to US$ 120 million, thus raising the SLCs revenue drastically,” he said.
Speaking further Sumathipala said, “Sri Lanka Cricket is now financially stable with a steady flow of revenues coming from different sources, while the organization has ensured that financial accountability is maintained at every level, with prudent mechanisms put in place for monitoring.”
Asset management firm
Sumathipala said plans are underway to establish an asset management firm as a subsidiary of the Sri Lanka Cricket to better manage cash flows of SLC’s major assets. He said, the money generated out of the SLC asset management operations will be utilized to finance the maintenance of SLC facilities across the country, which as of now incurs millions and is borne out by the revenues generated by the SLC.
Development of the game
According to Sumathipala, SLC has taken several steps to ensure the development of the game. Among those steps are, decentralizing of powers to the District and Provincial Associations to run the game in their respective regions.
“When we took over, SLC was controlling 132 clubs, now we have brought them down to 24 and decentralized the power to provincial and district associations, thus giving them the decision making powers,” the SLC president said.
He also said, steps were taken to bring in the age level cricket starting from under 15, 17, 19, 21 and 23, from both district and provincial level cricket under the direct supervision of the SLC to ensure that grassroots level cricket development stays in line with SLCs vision.
The SLC president also said steps were taken to enhance the knowledge level of local coaches by sending selected coaches for overseas training programs.
Player focus
Sumathipala said, Sri Lanka Cricket has taken all the required steps to ensure that players of the national team are looked after well. He said, the introduction of a strong insurance cover for the national players, which is on par with any other international cricketer, introducing a performance based bonus system for playersand providing contracts for 70 first class cricketers, apart from the contracts given for the national players are among the steps taken to ensure the sustainability of the players.
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