On Thursday, Sri Lanka’s parliament asked the cricket board to quit unanimously after accusing it of millions of dollars worth of corruption that had never been seen before.
It was the latest development in a crisis involving the cricket board, which is the richest sports body in the broke island nation. The crisis reached a peak after India beat Sri Lanka badly in the World Cup last week.
The move doesn’t have to happen, but it puts more pressure on the board. On Monday, the sports minister fired them, but the Court of Appeal put them back on the job the next day.
Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition, proposed a resolution asking Sri Lanka Cricket to step down right away. The government agreed, showing a rare sign of unity in the house that was otherwise very divided.
“This is an important resolution that shows the world that Sri Lankan lawmakers have come together to protect cricket and make the game fair again,” Premadasa told the parliament of the cricket-crazy country.
“We want the corrupt board to go.”
A source on the board said that they would talk to a lawyer before responding to the motion.
Roshan Ranasinghe, the minister of sports, has said that the board is corrupt on a large scale. On Monday, he fired the elected members and put in place a temporary committee led by Arjuna Ranatunga, who used to be captain.
On Tuesday, the appeals court put back in place the original board for two weeks until there was a full review.
Ranasinghe told parliament on Tuesday that large amounts of money were being stolen by the board.
He said he would rather quit than change his mind about firing the board. He also said that President Ranil Wickremesinghe was trying to protect crooked officials.
The world governing body for cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC), hasn’t said anything about the situation that’s getting worse so far this week.
The ICC has rules that say politicians can’t get involved, and Sri Lanka has been banned before.
Since 1996, Sri Lanka has not won the World Cup. Ranasinghe says that the board is to blame for the “deterioration” of standards.