Sangakkara and Mahanama part of Transformation Committee to run SLC

The majority of the committee's members hail from corporate, legal, and political spheres, with former Member of Parliament Eran Wickramaratne appointed as chair

Kumar Sangakkara is one of nine Transformation Committee members appointed to run Sri Lanka Cricket, after the country's government ousted the previous office bearers on Wednesday.

Sangakkara is the most high-profile cricketer in the committee, which also features Roshan Mahanama and Sidath Wettimuny. But the majority of the committee's members hail from corporate, legal, and political spheres, with former Member of Parliament Eran Wickramaratne appointed as chair.

Wickramaratne, a politician hailing from Sri Lanka's main opposition party (Samagi Jana Balawegaya) in addition to being a corporate figure himself, is understood to have stepped down from his political positions within his party in order to assume this role. He is not a current member of parliament.

"I am privileged to lead a nine-member committee of individuals with impeccable integrity and expertise," Wickramaratne said, before outlining two primary aims of the Transformation Committee in a statement.

"Our immediate priority is a total overhaul of the governance framework at SLC," he said. "The cornerstone of this effort will be the implementation of the new consitution, ensuring it serves as a robust, modern foundation for the sport." The existing SLC constitition has been criticised vociferously or years for being archaic, and often counter-productive, granting too much power to non-performing (and sometimes non-existent) cricketing bodies. The constitution is also alleged to have allowed for substantial corruption, mismanagement, and inefficiency. The presence of two lawyers on the committee (Dinal Phillips and Upul Kumarapperuma) also suggests drafting a new constitution will be among the Committee's primary roles.

The Committee's second priority is to ensure "excellence on the field" Wickramaratne said. "We will focus on establishing the structures, world-class facilities, and incentive models necessary to empower our national teams. Our goal is to enable our players to consistently deliver world-class performances and elevate Sri Lanka back to the top tier of international rankings."

The ICC has not so far weighed in on the government-led changes to SLC's leadership, but has in the past taken a harsh official view of what it deems to be political interference in Sri Lanka's cricket governance. In 2023 the ICC "suspended" Sri Lanka Cricket because of alleged interference by the then sports minister, although SLC's now-ousted president Shammi Silva had requested that suspension.

In 2015, the last occasion in which a Sri Lankan government replaced the board with an interim committee, the ICC had also reduced SLC to observer status at board meetings, and had also held SLC's funds in escrow.

That the head of this Transformation Committee is a politician from the major opposition party, rather than from within the government's own political ranks, is significant, however. Wickramaratne said the Committee was "committed to absolute compliance with International Cricket Council regulations while embedding transparency, anti-corruption, and professionalism into the organisation's DNA".

Some of the nine appointees have some experience in cricket administration, most notably Wettimuny (who led the 2015 interim committee), and Prakash Schaffter. Avanthi Colombage, whose background is in the corporate sector, is the only woman among the nine.

There had been substantial public pressure on ousted SLC president Silva since Sri Lanka's poor showing at the T20 Men's World Cup, which Sri Lanka co-hosted in February and March. That Silva had won the presidency uncontested on three successive occasions even while the men's and women's senior teams have failed to make knockouts at major ICC tournaments since 2014, had often been cited as an example of SLC's systemic dysfunction.

SLC's new committee members:

Eran Wickramaratne (politics/corporate)

Roshan Mahanama (cricket/corporate)

Kumar Sangakkara (cricket/business)

Sidath Wettimuny (cricket/corporate)

Prakash Schaffter (corporate/cricket)

Avanthi Colombage (corporate)

Thushira Radella (corporate)

Upul Kumarapperuma (law/politics)

Dinal Phillips (law)