{"id":193673,"date":"2018-09-21T21:16:46","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T15:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=193673"},"modified":"2018-09-21T21:25:14","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T15:55:14","slug":"thilanga-says-construction-of-sooriyaweva-stadium-drained-coffers-of-slc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thilanga-says-construction-of-sooriyaweva-stadium-drained-coffers-of-slc\/","title":{"rendered":"Thilanga Says Construction Of Sooriyaweva Stadium Drained Coffers Of SLC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket, Parliamentarian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Thilanga+Sumathipala\">Thilanga Sumathipala<\/a> charged that the Joint Opposition was attempting to destroy cricket by politicizing every aspect of it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_110249\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Thilanga.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110249\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-110249\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Thilanga-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Thilanga-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Thilanga-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-110249\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thilanga Sumathipala<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Speaking in Parliament today, Sumathipala said a whopping Rs.6 Billion was spent to construct a cricket ground in Sooriyaweva, in the Hambantota district. This, he said, drained the coffers of Sri Lankan cricket and the government had to intervene to repay the loans obtained for the construction.<\/p>\n<p>Sumathipala made these remarks responding to the adjournment motion presented by UPFA Kanchana Wijesekera on the current status of Sri Lankan Cricket.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The rogues who were responsible for this were never apprehended. I regret that I could not pursue the matter when I was the Sri Lanka Cricket Chairman. I request the current Sports Minister to look into this fraud,&#8221; Sumathipala said.<\/p>\n<p>Sumathipala described himself as an &#8216;honourable man&#8217; who managed to save Rs. 2.8 billion in the accounts of Sri Lanka Cricket.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I, as the SLC Chairman, never had political interferences. If someone is trying to make political interventions at this point, that is only for selfish gains. Such interlopers do not have any understanding of cricket nor do they have an iota of intelligence,&#8221; he said, dubbing those who question his integrity as &#8220;mere contractors.&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The former Sri Lanka Cricket Chairman said the sole purpose of the adjournment debate was to sling mud at those who are involved in the game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sri Lanka Cricket was not built by just one or two people. The effort of many people went into it. This attempt of politicization, I must say, will destroy the collective effort of everyone,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":110249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thilanga Says Construction Of Sooriyaweva Stadium Drained Coffers Of SLC - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thilanga-says-construction-of-sooriyaweva-stadium-drained-coffers-of-slc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thilanga Says Construction Of Sooriyaweva Stadium Drained Coffers Of SLC - 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