With Sri Lanka's sports ministry saying Sri Lanka Cricket did not follow procedure in calling for their elections, the board's Executive Committee will remain in charge on an interim basis even after their term ends on May 31. ESPNcricinfo understands the SLC elections, originally meant for May 19, will now be held only in late June or July.
In a letter sent to SLC, acting sports minister Faiszer Mustapha pointed out that sports law states an election committee can only be appointed and sanctioned at an Extraordinary General Meeting with the approval of SLC members. As SLC had appointed the election committee at an executive committee meeting, the ministry views it as invalid and has asked SLC to halt the reception of nominations.
In response, SLC confirmed that it is looking to call an EGM at the earliest. As per the SLC constitution, members need to be given at least 14 days notice ahead of an EGM, and then a further 40 days must lapse before an AGM and an election can be held. With the present Executive Committee's term ending on May 31, they have been re-appointed as an Interim Committee and will remain in charge until fresh elections are held.
SLC also claims that it had received permission to conduct the election from previous sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekera.
"Since we didn't have time to appoint an election committee at the last EGM, we sought permission from the previous Sports Minister for the Executive Committee to appoint an election committee," an SLC official told ESPNcricnfo. "I don't know, however, if the present Minister knew about the permission that we had received from the previous Minister."
The previous minister Jayasekara had resigned from his position on April 11.