Arjuna Ranatunga suffers embarrassing defeat in Sri Lanka Cricket election

Colombo: Sri Lanka's World Cup-winning former captain Arjuna Ranatunga suffered an embarrassing loss along with his brother Nishantha as Thilanga Sumathipala was elected President of the country's Cricket Board here on Sunday.

Sumathipala, the current deputy speaker of parliament got 88 votes as opposed to his main challenger, Nishantha, who received 56 votes in the Sti Lanka Cricket elections held at the Sports Ministry today amid high security.

Special Task Force soldiers were deployed in the vicinity of the ministry premises.

Arjuna, the current Minister of Ports and Shipping and the country's only ODI World Cup-winning captain, was also defeated in his bid to become a vice-President.

He was beaten by 22 votes to Jayantha Dharmadasa who belonged to the Sumathipala camp. Sumathipala thus returned to head SLC for his third term at the top.

Both his previous administrations were dismissed by the government who appointed interim committees to run the SLC.

Nishantha Ranatunga was the Secretary of the last elected administration which was also dissolved in March last year to be replaced with an interim committee.

The International Cricket Council had been pressurising the government to hold democratic elections as early as possible.

The government, after dismissing the previous administration, appointed a probe committee to look into allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

The position of Secretary has also gone to a member of the Sumathipala camp, Mohan de Silva. Sumathipala and de Silva have worked together in the same positions previously.