Powers to appoint the Cricket Selection Committee removed from the Sports Minister.

Through the proposed new Cricket Bill, introduced with the aim of updating Sri Lanka Cricket administration, the power held by the Minister of Sports to appoint the national cricket selection committee for nearly five decades is set to be completely abolished. Once this bill, gazetted last week, is passed by Parliament and becomes law, the full authority to appoint selection committees for men's and women's national teams will be vested in Sri Lanka Cricket.

This completely changes the old method where the Minister of Sports appointed one selection committee from nominations provided by the cricket governing body under the Sports Act No. 25 of 1973, marking a significant change that removes direct government intervention.

According to Section 21(4) of the new draft, the power to appoint individuals to a committee or sub-committee is vested in Sri Lanka Cricket. Section 21(5) emphasizes that such appointed members must possess a good moral background and adequate expertise, experience, and skill in the relevant field. External individuals who are not employees or directors of Sri Lanka Cricket will also have the opportunity to represent these committees, and it has been proposed to limit the total service period to eight years to prevent specific individuals from holding administrative positions for extended durations.

Another unique aspect here is that in addition to appointing selection committee members, Sri Lanka Cricket also holds the right to determine the framework within which they should operate. Sections 21(7) and 21(8) of the draft state that a written directive, including the powers, roles, composition, and reporting responsibilities of the selection committee, must be approved by Sri Lanka Cricket. However, although Section 21(10) allows the President and CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket to officially attend selection committee meetings, they are deprived of the right to vote there. Under the previous system, only the Cricket Secretary had the opportunity to attend in this manner, without voting rights.

Although the power to appoint selection committee officials has been removed from the Minister and given to Sri Lanka Cricket with the aim of eliminating political interference, the new bill does not clearly state how independent this committee will be from Sri Lanka Cricket. Furthermore, the detailed procedure for selecting members is not directly specified in the act; according to Section 47(4), the responsibility for establishing this procedure has been assigned to the rules and regulations to be formulated by the current Cricket Transformation Committee. Moreover, this draft currently contains no provisions regarding the establishment of a separate independent body to nominate selection committee members or the circumstances under which appointed members can be removed from office.