The Sri Lankan Navy has taken into custody 196 Indian fishermen and 29 fishing vessels for engaging in illegal fishing activities within Sri Lankan waters this year.

The latest arrests involved 22 fishermen and two vessels intercepted off the coast of Point Pedro yesterday.

The apprehended fishermen have been handed over to the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources for further legal proceedings.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) states that it strongly refutes the recent allegations made by the leadership of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) in parliament regarding the communication between the SLC and the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Issuing a statement, Sri Lanka’s cricket governing body alleged it is evident that there is a misapprehension and misinterpretation of the contents of the letter under reference, and that the SLC is compelled to clarify its position on the said matter.

SLC, as a Full Member of the ICC, is duty-bound and obliged to adhere to the member obligations envisaged in the articles of association of the ICC. In doing so SLC is further obliged to keep the ICC informed of any difficulty and/or difficulties of adhering to such obligations, the statement added.

Meanwhile, the country’s cricket governing body expressed that with the appointment of Roshan Ranasinghe as the Minister of Sports, SLC has been experiencing continuous undue interferences by the Minister in its governance and operational matters.

“The interferences by the Minister did make it difficult for SLC to manage its day to-day affairs as envisaged in the said article, compelling the SLC to bring such interferences to the attention of ICC as SLC could not honour its obligations to comply with the said requirements envisaged in the article 2.4(D) of the ICC Articles”, SLC claimed further.

Furthermore, the statement highlights that in response to the action of the Minister the ICC had explicitly and categorically stated that it would not recognize any interim committees appointed by the Minister and the ICC would only recognize the duly elected office bearers of SLC as their point of contact as far as Sri Lanka is concerned.

“Therefore the suspension of SLC was a result of continues interferences by the Minister despite numerous warnings resulting in SLC not being able to adhere to article 2.4D in violation of said article and as stated it is quite evident that it was not a result of SLC’s communication which was misquoted and/or misapprehended by the Leader of SJB in the Parliament”, it said.

“SLC sympathizes with those who may not fully understand the intricacies of how sports associations affiliated with international bodies such as ICC function”, the statement added, mentioning that “we sincerely request anyone who wants to be critical of SLC to diligently intelligently consider the facts prior to disseminating baseless accusations and statements lacking merit”.

Speaking during the parliamentary session on Saturday (18), Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa revealed details of a letter said to have been sent by the Chairman of SLC, Shammi Silva to the ICC on ‘political interference’ in Sri Lanka’s cricket.

Premadasa claimed that the letter, copies of which have been sent to the cricket administration bodies of 12 countries including the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Jay Shah, has pointed out 05 matters pertaining to the challenges faced by Sri Lanka cricket due to the government’s interference.

Sanjeeva Jayawardena PC has resigned from his post as a member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Sanjeeva Jayawardena told News 1st that he tendered his resignation on November 5 due to the intense pressure of work in the legal profession and for personal reasons.

He said that he has formally tendered his letter of resignation to the Ministry of Finance.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance said that a new member will be appointed to the position left vacant.