Hashan Tillakaratne to head umpires association

Hashan Tillakaratne, the former Sri Lankan batsman, has been elected uncontested as the president of the 225-member Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers Sri Lanka (ACUSSL), at their 64th annual general meeting held at the Royal College auditorium in Colombo yesterday.

Tillakaratne, 40, is only the second Sri Lankan Test player to be appointed to the post after Bandula Warnapura, the former Test captain. Outgoing president Saman Amerasinghe beat DN Pathirana to the post of general secretary, securing 92 votes against 80, while JWK Boteju retained the assignment secretary's post with 92 votes against 86 polled by T Junkeer.

"I was invited to become president of the association by a section of the umpires in order to uplift the standard of umpiring in this country," Tillakaratne said. "I had a lot of respect for the umpires as a player and I now want to contribute something towards their betterment."

He further stated that some of his main goals towards improving umpiring standards would be to institute a pension scheme, give more international exposure, provide insurance cover and to ensure that at least one or two umpires make it to the ICC's elite panel.

The five vice-presidents elected were: Asoka de Silva (131 votes), DRP Dinapoorna (122), Chris de Silva (106), Gamini Silva (80) and DC Gamalathge (66). As the meeting had dragged on for more than half a day, the counting of votes for the 11 committee members was postponed to Monday.