SPORTS

SL appoint Sumathipala as international envoy

October 12, 2004 12:55 IST
Sri Lanka's cricket board have appointed Thilanga Sumathipala, a former board president currently standing trail for alleged complicity in an immigration fraud, as their international envoy.

"The executive committee unanimously decided to request Mr Thilanga Sumathipala to attend the International Cricket Council executive meeting in Lahore on October 16 and 17," a cricket board media release said on Tuesday.

"Sumathipala is the longest serving ICC executive board member who has been handling the most important affairs in the international arena for Sri Lanka Cricket," the release added.

Considered the most powerful cricket administrator in Sri Lanka, Sumathipala presided over the board for three terms before standing down in April in the midst

of an immigration scandal.

Sumathipala was remanded in custody in January after being accused of helping Dhammika Amarasinghe, a man implicated in more than 28 murder cases, to obtain a forged passport and travel to London as a cricket board guest in 1999.

Amarasinghe was shot dead in January by an assassin dressed in lawyers robes as he was escorted to court in connection with an unrelated case.

Sumathipala was finally released on bail on June 18 after nearly five months of custody, most of which was spent in a private hospital under police guard.

Although the case continues, with the next hearing schedule for later this month, Sumathipala's passport has been released by the court for the meeting.

Source: REUTERS
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