ICC Suspends Sri Lanka Cricket's Membership

On Friday, November 10, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the suspension of Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership. The decision has been made on charges of government interference.

Sri Lanka National Cricket Team performed poorly in the ongoing edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup. Out of the 9 matches in the league stage, the Lankan Lions only managed to win 2 matches and ended the competition with just 4 points in their bag. With the poor World Cup performance, they have also failed to qualify for the 2025 Championship Trophy.

Following the poor performance of the team on the field, there was a lot of chaos in the SLC. On Thursday, the Sri Lankan parliament unanimously passed a resolution, calling for the sacking of the SLC, with both the ruling and opposition parties supporting it. This came a couple of days after the Court of Appeal restored the SLC management headed by Shammi Silva on Tuesday.

Notably, Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe on Monday made the decision to sack the entire Sri Lanka Cricket board following the Kusal Mendis-led side’s humiliating defeat at the hands of India. Also, the legendary cricketer Arjuna Ranatunga was appointed as the head of a seven-member interim committee to govern the SLC

Sri Lanka Cricket Suspended By ICC

With all the government interference in Sri Lanka Cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has made the decision to suspend the board’s membership with the ICC.

“The International Cricket Council (ICC) Board has suspended Sri Lanka Cricket’s membership of the ICC with immediate effect.

“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.

“The conditions of the suspension will be decided by the ICC Board in due course,’ the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in an official media release.

Talking about Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign, the team suffered a major blow when skipper Dasun Shanaka got ruled out and Kusal Mendis was handed the leadership role.

Mendis was in red-hot form with the bat in the competition initially but wasn’t able to handle the pressure of captaincy and his performance went downhill. Also, the Lankan Lions only won two matches in the competition against the Netherlands and England.