SLC wastes Rs. 680 mn to file lawsuits

The Sri Lanka Cricket has spent Rs. 680 million solely as legal fees over the past three years, media reported over the weekend.

The media reports opined that millions of rupees were spent on legal battles, while many schools faced severe financial hardships to maintain their cricket programmes and several premier first-class cricket clubs in the country struggled for survival.

With this revelation, the cricket sphere has stirred, and serious questions arose regarding the financial priorities of the cricket governing body.

According to report, lawsuits have been filed against journalists, former cricketers, and cricket administrators. The report mentions that Sri Lanka Cricket later withdrew a majority of these filed lawsuits.

The media reported that the cricket institution spent money on litigation without any evaluation on the cost, and in some instances, the annual fee paid to a single lawyer exceeded the annual earnings of Sri Lanka's finest senior players. In 2023 alone, Sri Lanka Cricket paid a sum of Rs. 50 million as legal fees to an individual senior lawyer.

The report mentions that internal sources of the Cricket Board have stated that although senior lawyers usually get involved only for high commercial-value agreements like television broadcasting rights, millions of funds wasted for defamation lawsuits.