Minister orders scrapping of TV deal

Gamini Lokuge, Sri Lanka's sports minister, has ordered Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to terminate the international television rights deal signed with Taj Television (Ten Sports) by the former interim committee headed by Jayantha Dharmadasa.

The minister's decision was based on the findings of a special three-man review committee headed by the minister's secretary S Liyanagma. The other two members of the committee were Dr Maiya Gunasekera, chairman of the National Sports Council and BLH Perera, a laywer.

The committee was asked to investigate the circumstances under which the controversial agreements were executed, whether there were any irregularities or non-compliance with procedures and to find out if there were any financial losses caused thereby to SLC.

The report blamed SLC officials for not obtaining prior approval of the sports minister. It stated they had gone ahead with the deal without obtaining any legal advice or consulting the in-house lawyer, without following the right procedure and ex facie without any proper approval of the interim committee.

The report said Taj Television would hold the rights under the original agreement till December 31, 2008 and they would also be entitled to participate in any tender that will be floated by SLC for future rights.