Arjuna Ranatunga

Former Sri Lanka captain and ruling party MP Arjuna Ranatunga made a stinging attack on Minister of Sports and Public Recreation Gamini Lokuge when he said the latter is a discredit to the government. Ranatunga blamed the Minister following revelations that the two television deals signed by him, running into 73 million US$, lacked transparency,

‘The Island’ revealed yesterday that Lokuge entered into two lucrative television deals with Dubai based Taj TV and India’s Nimbus Pvt. Ltd. without the knowledge of the Marketing Department of Sri Lanka Cricket.

"I have serious doubts whether I was removed from the board to facilitate these two television contracts," Ranatunga queried when ‘The Island’ contacted him for his views on the developments.

"I am stunned to hear that the five-match ODI series and the Twenty-20 early this year were signed for a sum of US$ six million. In 2008, when India played five ODIs, we got US$ 11 million. That’s the rate that Indian teams generally attract. This time, there was an additional day-night game and a Twenty-20 game which we didn’t have in 2008. I am just stunned to hear what’s going on," Ranatunga said.

If entering into a contract with a company (Nimbus) that had been blacklisted by SLC was bad enough, the Indian company is still to pay 2.8 US$ and SLC is on the verge of sending a letter of demand to Nimbus Pvt. Ltd.

"We already have experience where a previous board agreed for arbitration with Nimbus in Singapore and ended up losing millions of dollars. I am told that the Sports Minister has repeated that blunder this time. I would like to know whether the Minister consulted anyone before entering into these contracts," Ranatunga asked.

"I am told that with Nimbus, the Minister opened bids on Friday and closed bids on Monday. Now if you want the best price for Sri Lankan cricket, why would you do that?

"Our President and the Government will go down in the history for finishing this war and heralding in a new era. At the same time the actions of this Sports Minister too will put our government in history books for all the wrong reasons."

"There’s too much of interference by the Minister on sports. Look at what he has done for rugby. At a time when the government’s popularity is sky high, the Sports Minister is bringing discredit to the government with his shameful acts."

"This is the first time a Sports Minister has got himself involved in selling cricket rights. In signing these deals he has kept the cricket community in complete darkness and, as a result, our cricket will suffer."

Lokuge sold television rights for the short Indian series for a sum of six million US$ and later hurried negotiations with Taj TV for a four-year period.