In 1975, after the Lanka Sama Samaja Party left Mrs. Bandaranayake’s ‘Samagi’ Peramuna government, the leader of the opposition and the leader of the UNP, J.R. Jayawardene, used to meet the leaders of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, N.M. Perera and Kolvin R. de Silva, secretly for discussions. Often these discussions centered around toppling down Mrs. Bandaranayake’s government. Most of the time these discussions were held at the residence of famous businessman Mr. Upali Wijewardene, who was a relative of J.R. as well as Mrs. Bandaranayke.
J.R. reprogrammed the mind of N.M.; if Mrs. Bandaranake calls for general elections, N.M.’s LSSP and Dr. Wickramasinghe’s communist party should compete together as a coalition.
“I will make sure you and your other leaders win by fielding weak candidates from my party.”
JR promised N.M.
Keeping his promise, JR fielded Vincent Perera to the Yatiyanthota electorate and did not take much interest in ensuring Vincent Perera’s victory in the elections. Learning this, somehow Premadasa organized a series of election meetings right round Yatiyanthota electorate and ensured Vincent Perera’s victory, and NM fell on all fours.
After JR’s election victory, NM came to meet JR. He said that he intends to contest the post of chairman of the Cricket Board, and he requested the support of the government and the sports minister. JR did not object to it. He knew after getting elected that he would get engaged more with the cricket board, which would eventually bring an end to Sri Lanka’s left movement. JR wanted this to happen. However, NM toiled hard to obtain test cricket status for Sri Lanka. NM fell sick while holding the position of the cricket board presidency.
During Premadasa’s tenure, he did not touch the cricket administration. He was not a cricket maniac like JR. He made the cricket board an independent entity. After NM JR appointed ministers to head the cricket, Premadasa did not get involved in the cricket board elections to elect the board presidents.
This enabled an opposition member, Laxman Jayakodi, to get elected as the board president. Premadasa instructed his sports minister to accept Laxman’s election and work amicably. When getting elected, Laxman Jayakodi was a senior SLFP member of Parliament. He criticized Premadasa and his government, but Premadasa never mixed up cricket and politics.
At present the incumbent president, Anura, gets involved with cricket control directly and appointed Eran Wickramaratna, an opposition member, to the cricket interim board. This is a direct government appointment, unlike NM’s and Laxman’s elected appointments.
The battle to oust the Cricket Board chairman and its governing body was first launched by Roshan Ranasinghe, sports minister under Ranil’s government, together with opposition leader Sajith Premadasa. Sajith and Roshan succeeded in rallying ministers and MPs from Ranil’s own administration to join the fight. In the end, government and opposition united to pass in Parliament a motion removing Shammi Silva and the cricket board—a motion hailed as historic. President Ranil opposed it. Anura Kumara and his JVP colleagues, Vijitha Herath and Harini Amarasuriya, withheld their votes. When Roshan accused Anura of striking a deal with Shammi, Anura responded by exposing corruption linked to interim committee chairman Arjuna Ranatunga, thereby indirectly shielding Shammi.
For the ‘aragalaya’ movement, which had once dreamed of elevating Anura to the presidency, the hope was that Shammi’s removal would cleanse cricket. Yet Anura never turned against Shammi. He even entrusted Shammi with building the Jaffna cricket stadium. For a year and a half of Anura’s presidency, Shammi reigned over the board.
“So why did Anura suddenly decide to remove Shammi…?”
At a time when allegations of coal theft and missing treasury funds besieged his government, and as protesters openly criticized both him and his administration, Anura sought to energize the public by adopting one of their slogans: remove Shammi and purify cricket. By removing Shammi, Anura aimed to kill two birds with one stone—he sought to please the protesters and boost his popularity, while also teaching a lesson to the main opposition party, the SJB, which had put both him and his government in difficulty over the coal theft allegations. He then appointed Eran, a senior SJB politician and member of its economic committee, to head the interim board, signaling that Eran aligned with the government and delivering a blow to the SJB.
Though there were capable candidates from among cricketers and business administrators, Anura chose Iran not to uplift cricket but to weaken the opposition. Likewise, he appointed lawyer Upul Kumarapperuma, a close ally, to the interim board. When Ranil had earlier named Upul as presidential counsel, the JVP mounted a fierce campaign against him, contributing to his defeat at the general election. Unable to give Upul a government post due to JVP opposition, Anura placated him with this cricket appointment. Both Iran and Upul were defeated candidates, yet the government offered no explanation as to why failed politicians were fit to run cricket.
In the 2024 presidential election, Anura and the JVP had branded Sajith’s economic committee—and Iran among them—as part of a corrupt cartel. How Iran suddenly emerged cleansed of that taint remains unanswered by the government. Historically, Sri Lankan leaders from J.R. to Ranil have weakened the opposition by luring MPs with ministerial posts. Anura could not follow that path, since the JVP’s policy forbids absorbing politicians from other parties. Instead, he devised a new tactic: weakening the opposition by granting them chairmanships of cricket boards while preserving JVP principles.
Among the elite, a belief persisted that Anura lacked a capable team to govern the country and manage the economy, whereas the SJB did. By drawing Iran into his fold, Anura sought to shatter that perception—a calculated move in his political game.
