It is said that many respected former cricketers and leading figures in the business field fear for being part of the sports’ administration. There were times it was suggested that many ex-cricketers, who were part of recent cricket Interim Committees, declined to join the current board now under D.S. de Silva.

A lot has been said and written about D.S., former Sri Lanka captain and leg-spinner. But the foremost of all those points is that he doesn’t have the capacity as an administrator. His stint as the coach of the Under-19 cricket team in 1999-2000 had some flaws although the team reached the finals of the tournament, where they were beaten by India.

After his coaching stint, his name didn’t feature prominently in local cricket circles, until early last year when he was brought in as Consultant of School Cricket for a massive salary of Rs.300,000, including additional perks. The story is that the highest authorities in the government wanted D.S. paid well. And the same authorities seem to have pushed his promotion as the Chairman of the board over several others.

D.S. has been not short of controversies. When Sri Lanka attained Test status, he was in England playing club cricket and demanded a higher match fee than the other players. This left a bad taste in the mouths of all senior players and it was said that one of the reasons for the rebel tour to South Africa in 1983 was the double standards meted out to the then National players.

With his appointment as the chief of Sri Lanka Cricket, D.S. automatically becomes a Director of the ICC, but it remains to be seen whether the world governing body would accept his appointment due to his links with the betting industry. On his own admission, he has been employed by betting magnate E.W. Balasuriya for a certain period.

After being appointed, it also took him more than a week to clarify whether he would continue to draw his salary and other perks for his post of Consultant - School Cricket, apart from being the Chairman of the board.

Despite these flaws, you’ve got to admire one of his very first moves as the head of the cricket board. B.H. Perera, better known as ‘Podi’ Sir, had done irreparable damage to Sri Lanka Cricket over the years. But successive administrations had turned a blind eye to his misconducts (Thilanga Sumathipala administration even reinstated him after Vijaya Malalasekara’s administration had earlier suspended his services) and he is believed to have got more charge sheets than any other official of the board. D.S. was quick to fix the mess by getting rid of ‘Podi’ Sir by suspending him from services after he created mayhem at the inaugural media briefing of the new committee.

And more importantly, he has told the media that he wouldn’t allow any interference by the Sports Ministry.

Arjuna Rantunga, the predecessor to D.S., was made to look a mere figurehead during his term as President of SLC. Gamini Lokuge, the Minister of Sports and Public Recreation, politicised the sport in such a manner that Ranatunga couldn’t even transfer a minor employee at SLC without Lokuge’s blessings.

Into the bargain, there were also numerous requests to provide employment to Lokuge’s men and women at the sporting body and the silliest of it all was a request made by the Minister from SLC, on his official letter-head, to bear the cost of a tea party that the Minister had organised to mark golden jubilee celebrations of his political career.

Arjuna, being Arjuna whom everybody knew, refused to give in and eventually paid the price.

Arjuna had some very good ideas for the game, but Lokuge simply didn’t allow the former captain to run the show on his own. And Lokuge, being Lokuge, made the most of the rift, clearly evident between the players and the chairman during a certain stage, to his advantage.

The Minister’s decision to let the Sri Lankan players participate in the IPL instead of the proposed tour of England too was ill-advised and, by doing so, the Minister compromised with the National interests giving priority to a private venture.

Dubious TV Deals –

The Minister was so interested on matters relating to Sri Lanka Cricket that he went on and signed two lucrative television deals on his own. There are various allegations with regard to these deals and one former Test captain has gone to the bribery commission alleging there had been massive frauds in the deals signed with Nimbus Group while the other deal with Ten Sports was questioned at the Parliament early this week.

For D.S., to say that he would not tolerate interference from the Ministry, he must have been told by the highest authorities here that he would be given a freehand to run the administration the way his committee wants and that’s indeed a good sign because Lokuge was dragging Sri Lankan cricket on the wrong path.

The cricket enthusiasts would be hoping that D.S. does an effective job. And for Lokuge, he must now be cursing removing Arjuna from the Interim Committee.

With Arjuna, he had some chance and if he didn’t succeed, he could have still used his ministerial authority, but testing any of those tricks with D.S. would virtually be something similar to committing political hara-kiri.