Sri Lanka names new cricket board

1 July 2011 Last updated at 15:56 GMT Sri Lankan cricket is heavily in debt after co-hosting the 2011 World Cup The Sri Lankan government has dissolved the country's cricket board and appointed a new one amid claims of corruption and mismanagement.

The government says a new board will be elected in January.

Under new rules set by world cricket's governing body, national cricket boards must be elected and free of political interference within two years.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been run by political appointees on a temporary basis for years and is heavily in debt.

The cricket board owes more than $15m after co-hosting this year's World Cup with India and Bangladesh. Last month it sought financial help from the government and state bank.

'Wrong media reports'

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told BBC Sinhala that the interim committee announced on Friday would serve until January when elections would be held.

"As per ICC recommendation we could have run an interim committee until 2013, but we will hold elections in January 2012," he said.

The new committee contains one former national player, Sidath Wettimuny, and three businessmen, headed by Upali Dharmadasa who was also part of the sport's governing body in the 1990s.

The changes come as cricket in Sri Lanka is going through rough times.

In April former national captain Hashan Tillekaratne claimed that match fixing had been a widespread practice in Sri Lankan cricket since 1992.

Shortly after the country co-hosted the World Cup this year, the captain, vice-captain and panel of selectors all resigned.

Although they did not say so, there has been much speculation that they had had enough of political interference in the game, the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says.

Many fans were unhappy when veteran player Sanath Jayasuriya was recently recalled to the squad, apparently by virtue of being a government MP.

There is a widespread feeling that cricket is corruptly and badly run in Sri Lanka, our correspondent says.

But the sports minister denied this. He said accounts of mismanagement in cricket were exaggerated, adding: "There is no financial crisis in the SLC."

Members of both committees would face a parliamentary committee on 6 July to "clear their name from certain wrong media reports", he added.

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Deported Tamils reach Sri Lanka

17 June 2011 Last updated at 15:20 GMT There is a significant Tamil population in the UK Twenty-six Sri Lankans deported by the UK have arrived back in Colombo on an overnight charter flight.

A BBC reporter said that the deportees were questioned and later released and that they appeared to be a mixture of failed asylum seekers and overstayers.

Human rights groups have criticised Britain, saying the mainly Tamil asylum seekers may not be safe. The UK government dismissed the fears.

Earlier this week it expressed concern about human rights in Sri Lanka.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged the UK not to deport Tamils to the country. Amnesty says it has "documented the endemic use of torture in Sri Lanka and a culture of impunity prevails".

Immigration Minister Damian Green said the UK "takes its international responsibilities seriously and considers each claim for asylum on its individual merits".

It was not immediately possible to get a Sri Lankan government comment.

But Sri Lanka's police spokesman said each returnee was questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department to ensure they had no criminal record. He said 15 of the 26 belonged to the Tamil minority, while seven were Muslim and four Sinhalese.

'Desperate'

The Sri Lankans left London on a chartered flight on Thursday.

"As part of our agreement with the Sri Lankan Government, 26 individuals who had been found to have no right to stay in the UK were removed on 17 June," the UK Home Office confirmed a day later.

Several in the group had told the BBC their lives were in danger.

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If I go back I will be picked up by the Tamil paramilitaries - they will torture me and kill me”

End Quote Failed Tamil asylum seeker The issue was also raised in the UK parliament by MP Siobhain McDonagh who said two of the Tamils concerned were her constituents.

She said one was formerly employed by a leading Tamil MP who had subsequently been arrested and detained by the Sri Lankan authorities.

"They are desperate and understandably so," she said.

Another man - believed to have served with Tamil Tiger rebels - is said to have tried to commit suicide. He told the BBC's Tamil service on Wednesday that his life would be in jeopardy if he were sent back.

Immigration officials say the man was taken to hospital but deemed fit to travel. His lawyer obtained a last-minute court order preventing his deportation and he is still in a UK detention centre.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo said the deportees emerged from the international airport throughout the day. By the late afternoon the International Organisation for Migration, which disbursed small grants to each returnee, said that all of them were out.

The parents of one man told the BBC he had breached rules by entering Britain on a study visa but taking paid work.

The UK Border Agency has said it is safe to send people to Sri Lanka because of what it calls "the improving situation" there. The Home Office added that it only undertakes returns to Sri Lanka when it is satisfied that the individual has no protection needs.

Yet in a human rights report in March, the British Foreign Office said it was concerned that disappearances and extra-judicial killings continued in the country.

And on Wednesday the Foreign Office called on Sri Lanka to investigate alleged atrocities against Tamil rebels following a Channel 4 documentary containing what it called "horrific" footage.

Sri Lanka dismissed the footage as fabricated.

Tensions

Sri Lanka's army defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009, ending 26 years of war.

But two years on, many people in the Tamil-dominated north still live in fear and thousands are unaccounted for, either dead or perhaps secretly detained by security forces.

There have been several recent accounts of tensions between locals in the north and the Sinhalese-dominated army from the south.

Ethnic minority Tamil MPs say troops forcibly broke up a political meeting they were holding near the northern city of Jaffna on Thursday, creating fear among local people. The local commander said there was no substance to their allegations.

Last month a meeting of Tamil academics, discussing cultural issues, was reportedly disrupted by armed military personnel who accused them of trying to commemorate the Tamil Tigers - something the academics denied.

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Sri Lanka defends military record

27 May 2011 Last updated at 07:43 GMT President Rajapaksa says his forces followed international human rights law Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has defended the conduct of the military during fighting at the end of the country's protracted civil war.

He was speaking at a huge military festival in Colombo to mark the two-year anniversary of the government's defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

A UN panel of experts recently accused both sides of war crimes during the last days of the conflict in 2009.

The president rejected calls for an independent international inquiry.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo said that it was a defiant speech from a president who still garners great public support from the war victory.

Thousands of military personnel took part in a march-past and military hardware display, in a now regular ritual.

Our correspondent says that the focus of the commemorations remained very much on the soldiers who died in the war rather than the civilians.

President Rajapaksa did not refer directly to the UN-commissioned report, but said that his forces followed international human rights law as they fought the rebels.

"Our forces carried the firearm in one hand and the human rights charter in the other. Our forces never harboured hatred towards any community or individual," he said.

"Looking at how other countries fight wars, we are proud of the humanitarian nature of our operation.

"Therefore, when we see how some countries carry out operations against enemies today, we are proud."

The president paid tribute to the skill of his armed forces at the parade

The president told his troops he would stand by them.

"We were with you in the battlefield. It is same today," he said. "We will not betray you before the world."

The military went out of its way to help the families of killed Tamil Tiger leaders, the president said.

He said that revisiting the past would "simply reopen old wounds".

He also castigated remnants of the Tamil Tigers and their supporters in Europe and the US - accusing them of plotting to destroy his country.

The UN-commissioned report said that tens of thousands of civilians died in the final phase of the war - most of them killed in shelling by government forces.

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Sri Lanka turn down Pakistan tour

Sri Lanka's Ajantha Mendis was among those injured in the 2009 attack Sri Lanka have turned down an offer to tour Pakistan because of ongoing security concerns.

Pakistan has not hosted international cricket since 2009, when gunmen attacked the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore, killing seven people.

The Pakistan Cricket Board said on Sunday that they had invited Sri Lanka for a series in October.

"We are concerned about the security and that's why we said no to them," said a Sri Lanka cricket spokesman.

"We are not going to send our team to Pakistan," said Sri Lanka Cricket chairman DS de Silva.

"I have asked the secretary to inform the Pakistan Cricket Board today [Tuesday] of the decision.

"We have instead requested Pakistan to host the matches in Colombo or at a neutral venue like Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

"The circumstances, with regards to security, don't allow us to play matches there [Pakistan]. Even the International Cricket Council has not given us security clearance," former Test leg-spinner de Silva said.

The itinerary put forward by the PCB included three Tests, five one-day internationals and one Twenty20 game in a series proposed for October.

But an attack by the Taliban on a naval air force base near Karachi's National Stadium on Sunday dealt a severe blow to the prospects.

Pakistan have played their 'home' series in the United Arab Emirates, England and New Zealand.

On Monday, Afghanistan became the first foreign squad since the attack to arrive to play against Pakistan.

The Afghans will take on a second-string Pakistan national team in a three-match series.

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