{"id":156474,"date":"2026-05-29T16:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T23:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=156474"},"modified":"2026-05-29T16:27:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T23:27:06","slug":"drs-jonathan-hall-general-counsel-icc-like-david-becker-head-legal-icc-has-submitted-that-icc-was-totally-unaware-of-senaka-weeraratnas-prior-work-completely-overlooking-the-doctrine-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/05\/29\/drs-jonathan-hall-general-counsel-icc-like-david-becker-head-legal-icc-has-submitted-that-icc-was-totally-unaware-of-senaka-weeraratnas-prior-work-completely-overlooking-the-doctrine-o\/","title":{"rendered":"DRS – Jonathan Hall, General Counsel ICC, like David Becker (Head Legal -ICC) has submitted that ICC was totally unaware of Senaka Weeraratna\u2019s prior work completely overlooking the Doctrine of Constructive Notice\u00a0and Oversight of core intellectual property principles."},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In an exchange of correspondence between Mr. Maithri Panagoda, Senior Partner, Carroll & O’ Dea Lawyers (letter dated December 06, 2022) appearing on behalf of Mr. Senaka Weeraratna, and Mr. Jonathan Hall, General Counsel and Company Secretary, ICC, Mr Hall ( in letter dated January 20, 2023) takes up the same defense that David Becker (Head Legal, ICC) foolishly raised in 2010 – that the ICC when it arrived by its own efforts granting a Player Right of Appeal in 2006 naming it the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) ,they did not know that Senaka Weeraratna had already conceived the concept of ‘ Player – Referral’ (1997) which carried the same four pillars found in UDRS and had publicized it all over the Cricket dominant countries e.g. UK, Australia,Pakistan and Sri Lanka, nine years before the ICC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan Hall says inter alia as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

”  as the ICC Decision Review System was developed independently by the ICC Cricket Committee and employees of the ICC at the time, it is not possible for there to be a breach of another person\u2019s copyright (to the extent that copyright, if any, actually existed in such other system).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the extent that any moral rights may exist in the ICC Decision Review System then they will vest in the author of the System who, as set out above, was an ICC employee or contractor, not your client. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hall adds ” We have also seen that your client raised the same such claims with the ICC back in 2010 and the ICC responded at that time stating that it did not accept your client\u2019s claims”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both David Becker in 2010 and Jonathan Hall in 2023 ( being highly paid senior lawyers of ICC) have completely overlooked a fundamental principle of law namely the Doctrine of Constructive Notice in their submissions when denying attribution and credit to the true inventor of Player – Referral – Senaka Weeraratna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hall makes another absurd statement: ‘  author of the System was an ICC employee or contractor, not your client ” . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No such claim or statement was made in David Becker’s reply in 2010.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constructive Notice Argument<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICC cannot claim ignorance for the following legal reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n