Officials further said that Ranatunga will receive his letter of appointment from President Mahinda Rajapakse today at the Temple Trees. ‘The Island’ also learns that Dharmadasa will be put in charge of another honorary post, possibly as the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Film Corporation.

Dharmadasa ends a highly controversial three-year tenure wherein he was accused of spending board funds to ensure that he won future cricket elections and his bitter battle with the ever controversial Thilanga Sumathipala lifted its ugly head on several instances.

Before Dharmadasa, the government had appointed three interim committees to run cricket since 1999 and while these committees were headed by men of unquestionable integrity, the appointment of Dharmadasa, who had unsuccessfully contested cricket elections before, raised many an eyebrow. He took over as the Chairman of the Cricket Interim Committee in March, 2005 in a dramatic coup d’tat that stunned the world cricket as armed officers raided cricket headquarters to overthrow Sumathipala and his committee.

Dharmadasa had the longest stint as an Interim Committee Chairman as he headed the sports body for three long years.

Ranatunga, meanwhile, has been an outspoken critic of both Jayantha Dharmadasa and Sumathipala camps. Two years back, he resigned from the high profile Cricket Committee after clear disagreements with Dharmadasa.

In 2003, he had even contested the cricket elections against Thilanga Sumathipala, but clearly told everyone that his aim in contesting the election was to prove money was ruining the sport and even a former Sri Lankan captain couldn’t come close to winning an election. Ranatunga knew he will be defeated, but he was in for a rude shock when his own cricket club, SSC, that he had served with dedication for two decades, turned its back on him and voted for Sumathipala, whose tainted reputation tarnished the image of SSC, too.

Courtesy - The Island