The captain of Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup-winning squad, Arjuna Ranatunga, has leveled grave accusations against Jay Shah, the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), alleging that Shah bears responsibility for the problems plaguing Sri Lankan cricket.
Notably, in a controversial interview, Arjuna Ranatunga claimed that the intimate relationship between Jay Shah and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) executives had resulted in SLC being subservient to the BCCI. In addition, he maintained that the BCCI has the perception of being able to control and dominate SLC because of the relationship between SLC officials and Jay Shah. He continued by saying that Jay Shah’s pressure is destroying Sri Lankan cricket and that he is effectively ruling the league. Furthermore, Ranatunga underlined that Jay Shah’s authority stems from his father, the Home Minister of India.
“They (the BCCI) think they can trample on and control SLC because of the relationship between SLC officials and Jay Shah,” Ranatunga was cited by the Daily Mirror as saying.
The Sri Lanka cricket team is led by Jay Shah. Jay Shah pressure is causing SLC to collapse. A single Indian man is ruining Sri Lankan cricket. The former world champion concluded, “His father, India’s home minister, is the only reason he is powerful.
After Sri Lanka’s elimination from the ODI World Cup in 2023, the ICC suspended the board.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently suspended Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) due to political interference in the organization’s management. Having won just two of their nine matches in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023, the Sri Lankan team’s performance was quite underwhelming. The team performed well against Afghanistan and the Netherlands, but not so well against other opponents.
Sri Lanka came in ninth, just ahead of the Netherlands, who came in tenth. Due to their performance below eighth place, Sri Lanka will be excluded from the Champions Trophy 2025, which is slated to take place in Pakistan. How the Sri Lankan Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council handle this persistent problem is still to be seen.