No religious sentiments in cricket says new chief
Head of the Sri Lanka Cricket’s Transformation Committee, Eran Wickremaratne, buried accusations against his religious conviction and at the same time asked a responsible media to show proof that his Christian beliefs stood in the way of others and will it stand in the way of fair-play in cricket administration. Wickremaratne, known by many as a Christian pastor, said cricket and what he has been tasked to do will be devoid of all aspects that may tend to divide people in the country.
“I went to a good school and I will not say which school. There were 35 students in my class and I was the only non-Buddhist and I became the student leader of the school. There were no issues. “I set up a bank, no issue.I was the head of the National Development Bank, no issue. I was the State Minister of Enterprise, no issue. I was the deputy Finance Minister, no issue”, said Wickremaratne, a former student of Royal College in Colombo who opened the batting for its team in the mid1970s.“I have not liked speaking about these things, but since you asked me this question I have opened out to it. Thank you for asking me”, he told the journalist who posed the question at a Press conference yesterday at the offices of Sri Lanka Cricket.
He emphasised that like in most other cases of public platforms in the country there will be no room for religious animosity and players will be selected on merit and not on religious, class, creed or race differences.