Sri Lankan cricket has been going through a tumultuous period in recent years and they almost didn’t qualify for the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 taking place in India. They had a poor tournament and finished in the bottom half, even though everyone expected the Asian teams to have an advantage in this edition of the World Cup.
Quite a few questions have been raised on the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) cricket board, their management of this crisis period, and their selection in general. And now as we reach towards the end of CWC 2023, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced Sri Lanka’s immediate membership suspension, meaning they won’t be able to play in future ICC events until the ban is lifted.
Why has ICC banned Sri Lanka Cricket?
ICC posted on their official website, with a brief explanation of the issue and why they’ve gone on to take this step. They said, “The International Cricket Council (ICC) Board has suspended Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership of the ICC with immediate effect. The conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC Board in due course.”
“The ICC Board met today and determined that Sri Lanka Cricket is in serious breach of its obligations as a Member, in particular, the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration of cricket in Sri Lanka,” they added, giving us a small idea as to why this decision to ban Sri Lanka was made.
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As they mentioned in their statement above, the ban was because of government and political interference in the control of Sri Lanka cricket. And this isn’t the first time that such a decision has been made. It was in 2019 that ICC banned Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) for similar reasons but it wasn’t too long before their ban was lifted, after the necessary changes were made in administration.
ICC SUSPENDS SRI LANKAN CRICKET BOARD MEMBERSHIP….!!!!
Sri Lanka won’t be able to take part in any ICC events until ICC uplifts the ban. pic.twitter.com/B6r1kl3YJL
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) November 10, 2023
So if you’re wondering why has Sri Lanka cricket been suspended by ICC today, the answer is primarily because of government interference. Most sporting bodies don’t allow government interference, as it takes away from the main purpose of hosting sports in any particular country. And the decision for ICC to ban Sri Lanka came a day after their CWC 2023 campaign ended, where they won 2 out of their 9 games!
Earlier this month, Sri Lanka lost to India by 300+ runs after being bowled out for 55 and post that, their sports minister sacked the entire cricket board. That’s where the troubles began for them and the ICC investigation has probably been on since quite a while now. Their dismal ICC World Cup 2023 outing means they will not even qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy.
If we know more about the Sri Lanka cricket board suspended and more reasons on why Sri Lanka cricket board is fired, we’ll update them here on this page. For more updates on CWC 2023 and other such cricketing events taking place around the world, remember to always stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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