AI Overview

Public backlash and allegations of complicity against the Sri Lanka Cricket Transformation Committee (CTC), chaired by Eran  Wickramaratne , stem from its failure to lobby the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the official recognition and royalties of Senaka Weeraratna. Weeraratna is the Colombo-based lawyer who conceptualized the “Player Referral” system, which serves as the foundational blueprint for today’s Umpire Decision Review System (DRS). [1, 2]

Public advocates and critics describe the Committee’s handling of these intellectual property (IP) claims as a severe compromise of national interests due to the following structural issues:

Failure to Pursue National Intellectual Property and Royalties

Critics argue that the CTC has a national duty to hold the ICC accountable for what they term as professional negligence and misrepresentation regarding the invention of the Player Referral system. By abandoning claims to the official recognition of Weeraratna, the committee has effectively sidelined potential multi-million dollar royalties generated by the DRS since 2009—funds that advocates argue could directly benefit Sri Lankan sports development and broader economic interests. [1]

Conflict of Interest and Complicity Concerns

Public anger intensified following the committee’s decision to hire David Becker, the former Head of Legal for the ICC, as an advisor to help draft Sri Lanka Cricket’s new governance constitution. Legal advocates view this hiring choice as a direct conflict of interest. They contend that employing a former top legal official from the very organization accused of ignoring Sri Lanka’s IP claims amounts to complicity with the ICC legal team. [1, 2, 3]

Misalignment of Administrative Priorities

While Eran Wickremaratne and the CTC have heavily promoted their focus on internal anti-corruption measures, a forensic audit of accounts, and rewriting an outdated SLC constitution, critics argue that these domestic administrative tasks should not come at the cost of protecting global intellectual property. The committee’s prioritization of international alignment with ICC governance guidelines is seen by detractors as a submissive approach that compromises Sri Lanka’s legal leverage on the world stage. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Sri Lanka Cricket is using DRS ( Player – Referral System) without consent of the true owner of the intellectual property. ICC does not own DRS nor has it registered DRS as owned by ICC.  It is basicaly intellectual property stolen from the true inventor of ‘Player – Referral’ namely Sri Lankan lawyer Senaka Weeraratna. 

This is what happened in the colonial era. Instead of fighting for the rights of the native – their own countryman – the Govt. of Sri Lanka and CTC are collaborating with a foreigner who has stabbed a Sri Lankan in the back and handsomely compensated him for his work without asking the foreigner i.e., David Becker, the South African lawyer, whether his oversight of the Doctrine of Constructive Notice produced a flawed and wrongful legal advice to the ICC.

Cricket is Championed as a ‘ Gentleman’s Game’ but the Administrators of Cricket in Sri Lanka and the ICC have hardly behaved as Gentlemen in their handling of the issue of recognition of the authorship of DRS.

All of them owe an invitation to the only claimant in the world for recognition of authorship of ‘Player – referral ‘ to attend a discussion leading to the holding of an impartial inquiry. That is Natural Justice.

The claimant must be heard first. He has brought overwhelming global recognition to Sri Lanka by his invention, which is unchallenged.

The entire global cricket establishment is using his intellectual property without feeling obliged to compensate him with even a cent of money. Is this fair?

 Having invented a ground breaking and unique solution to correct mistakes of an on field umpire Senaka Weeraratna has a legitimate expectation of due recognition and fair and adequate compensation.  

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