Dharmadasa Remains President Of BCCSL (3 Mar 1997)

3 March 1997

Dharmadasa remains president : overcomes CCC challenge

By Sa`adi Thawfeeq

Upali Dharmadasa survived a storm from the Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) to continue as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka for a second consecutive year at the 49th annual general meeting held at the Cricket Board headquarters Sunday.

The CCC representative at the meeting Kumar Ponnambalam wanted Dharmadasa to vacate the post and appoint a pro tempore chairman to conduct proceedings with regard to the election of officebearers and special committees.

The house then appointed Dharmadasa as pro tempore chairman to which Ponnambalam objected.

The CCC representative also questioned the eligibility of Dharmadasa and secretary Triphone Mirando to be nominated to contest the elections.

Dharmadasa replied that he had been an office-bearer of the Cricket Board since 1990-91 and the question of his eligibility did not arise.

"The question of appointing a pro tempore chairman arises only if the president is contested,`` he said.

The house overruled Ponnambalam as the nominations had already been ratified by the Executive Committee and sent to the Sports Minister, and continued with the business of electing the office-bearers and special committees.

"The whole conduct of the meeting was completely wrong. The constitution of the Board was not followed. The president was sitting in judgment on his own matter,`` said Ponnambalam after the AGM.

In the three office-bearer posts that were contested, Mirando retained his post as secretary for another year, defeating Chrisantha de Silva by 99 votes to 36.

Thilanga Sumathipala too retained his post as one of the vicepresidents for a third consecutive year, when he polled 112 votes. The contest for the other vice-president post saw Jayantha Paranathala scrape through narrowly by eight votes ahead of Abu Fuard (71-63).

Nihal Leuke became the new assistant treasurer, when he defeated Mithra Siriwardena 79-48. Rev. R.S. Karthikeyan also contested this post.

The sad aspect of this AGM was that none of the past cricketers, some of them who have played for the country, could get into any of the special committees.

Among those who contested for posts were Guy de Alwis, Saliya Ahangama, Sonny Yatawara, Adel Hashim, Jayantha Kudahetty and Dennis Davis.

The office-bearers for 1997-98 :

President: Upali Dharmadasa (uncontested), Vice Presidents: Thilanga Sumathipala, Jayantha Paranathala, Hony. Secretary: Triphone Mirando, Hony. Asst. Secretary (uncontested): Ajith Abey- gunawardena, Hony. Treasurer (uncontested): Kumar Weerasuriya, Hony. Asst. Treasurer: Nihal Leuke.

Controlling Clubs (3 posts): Irwin Jayawardena, Shibly Vilcassim, Srinath Silva; Affiliated Clubs (2 posts) : Priyantha Algama, Ronnie Guneratne; District Associations (2 posts): S. Ramakrishnan (Ratnapura), Neville Seneviratne (Kegalle).

Special Committees: Tournament - M. Sivaratnam (chairman), Jeevaka Fernando (secretary), Roshan Abeysinghe, Jayantha Jayaweera, Frank Cooray; Umpires : Mahinda Seneviratne (chairman), Marion Cooray (secretary), A.R.M. Aroos, Lal Ranasinghe, Lincoln Perera; Sponsorship - Senarath de Alwis, Jagath Pattiarachchi, Lakshman Silva, Lasantha Rodrigo, Pemlal Fernando. Tour Organising Committee - Deva Amunugama, Hyasthi Aponso, Wg. Com. Ranjith Samarasinghe, S. Mohotti, Sunil Cooray.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net/)