SLC governing body election in January

Colombo: The elections to appoint office-bearers to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will be held in the first week of January, Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera has said.

The SLC has been run since March this year by an interim committee appointed by the government. The ICC has taken exception to this and demanded that democratically elected governing body be appointed with minimum delay.

The new government, which was elected in January, said elections were postponed as the government wanted to probe alleged corruption in the SLC under the previous administration.

The government demanded that SLC pay the dues that remain outstanding to the government institutions.

Jayasekera's predecessor, Navin Dissanayake, had appointed a four-member probe committee to investigate accusations. The report has been handed over to Jayasekera.

The SLC interim committee sources said that the vacant position of Sri Lanka's head coach will be filled only after the new governing body takes shape.

The application process which ended on October 6 will be held back. It was reported that as many as six foreign applicants were in the fray. The position fell vacant in September with the resignation of Marvan Atapattu.

The current West Indies tour is being looked after by SLC's head of coaching, Jerome Jayaratne. Sri Lanka won the two-match Test series 2-0.

Sri Lanka lost both home series against Pakistan and India under Atapattu. Jayaratne will also be in charge when the team tours New Zealand in December.