{"id":157113,"date":"2026-07-03T14:18:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T21:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=157113"},"modified":"2026-07-03T14:18:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T21:18:03","slug":"christian-missionary-at-the-head-table-of-sri-lanka-cricket-worries-buddhist-sinhalese-cricket-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/07\/03\/christian-missionary-at-the-head-table-of-sri-lanka-cricket-worries-buddhist-sinhalese-cricket-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Missionary at the Head Table of Sri Lanka Cricket worries Buddhist Sinhalese Cricket fans"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>AI Overview<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Public concern regarding religious influence in Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) heightened following the appointment of <strong>Eran Wickramaratne<\/strong>, a prominent political figure known for his evangelical Christian background, to lead the newly formed <strong>SLC Transformation Committee<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The unease among Buddhist Sinhalese cricket fans stems from fear of religious favoritism and the historical context of evangelical movements intersecting with national sports. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/07\/02\/religious-favouritism-is-the-greatest-fear-among-a-vast-number-of-people-in-sri-lanka-over-the-recent-choices-made-by-the-cricket-transformative-committee\/\">1<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cricketage.in\/2022\/12\/13\/sri-lankas-sports-ministry-appointed-inquiry-committee-dials-pastor-jerome\/\">2<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Core Factors Driving the Concern<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Leadership Background:<\/strong> Eran Wickramaratne, whose family historically pioneered Pentecostal-style Christian worship in Sri Lanka, was tasked with guiding cricket reforms. Nationalist commentary and platforms like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/07\/02\/religious-favouritism-is-the-greatest-fear-among-a-vast-number-of-people-in-sri-lanka-over-the-recent-choices-made-by-the-cricket-transformative-committee\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LankaWeb<\/a> criticized having an evangelical figure &#8220;at the head table&#8221; of a sport overwhelmingly supported by a predominantly Buddhist population. [<a href=\"https:\/\/themorningtelegraph.com\/41747\/\">1<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/07\/02\/religious-favouritism-is-the-greatest-fear-among-a-vast-number-of-people-in-sri-lanka-over-the-recent-choices-made-by-the-cricket-transformative-committee\/\">2<\/a>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The &#8220;Born Again&#8221; Controversy:<\/strong> Suspicions are rooted in a 2023 Ministry of Sports inquiry. A retired Supreme Court judge&#8217;s report previously investigated allegations that a non-mainstream Christian cult (often locally referred to as &#8220;Born Again&#8221;) exerted undue influence over national team selections and player alignments. [<a href=\"https:\/\/m.rediff.com\/cricket\/report\/christian-sect-born-again-behind-sri-lankas-t20-wc-failure\/20230112.htm\">1<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/breaking-news\/Influence-of-Born-Again-sect-in-national-team-affairs-under-the-scanner\/108-252221\">2<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cricketage.in\/2022\/12\/13\/sri-lankas-sports-ministry-appointed-inquiry-committee-dials-pastor-jerome\/\">3<\/a>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Administrative Decisions:<\/strong> Public pushback intensified over the committee&#8217;s decision to hire South African legal expert David Becker\u2014who had a past intellectual property clash over Decision Review System (DRS) authorship\u2014while allegedly ignoring the claims of a local Buddhist Sinhalese inventor. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/07\/02\/religious-favouritism-is-the-greatest-fear-among-a-vast-number-of-people-in-sri-lanka-over-the-recent-choices-made-by-the-cricket-transformative-committee\/\">1<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Official Response and Clarifications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Commitment to Merit:<\/strong> Addressing the media at the SLC offices, Eran Wickramaratne explicitly countered the religious anxieties. He emphasized that his public track record in banking and state ministries was entirely secular, stating that <a href=\"https:\/\/srilankacricket.lk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sri Lanka Cricket<\/a> operations would remain <strong>devoid of religious animosity<\/strong> and that selections will strictly rely on player merit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Secular Governance:<\/strong> Fact-checking entities dismantled early social media rumors claiming the committee sought to introduce ethnic or religious quotas for team selections, confirming no such changes were made.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to look closer into this topic, let me know if you would like me to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Summarize the <strong>findings of the 2023 Sports Ministry inquiry<\/strong> regarding religious cults in cricket.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Detail the <strong>mandate and current members<\/strong> of the SLC Transformation Committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me know how you would like to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/5lr1QCnPRFt5PMEXk\">https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/5lr1QCnPRFt5PMEXk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AI Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI Overview Public concern regarding religious influence in Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) heightened following the appointment of Eran Wickramaratne, a prominent political figure known for his evangelical Christian background, to lead the newly formed SLC Transformation Committee. The unease among Buddhist Sinhalese cricket fans stems from fear of religious favoritism and the historical context of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157114,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157113\/revisions\/157114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}