{"id":157188,"date":"2026-07-07T15:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=157188"},"modified":"2026-07-07T15:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:02:22","slug":"icc-legal-team-fraud-on-sri-lanka-on-authorship-of-drs-shakes-the-cricket-establishment-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/07\/07\/icc-legal-team-fraud-on-sri-lanka-on-authorship-of-drs-shakes-the-cricket-establishment-worldwide\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC legal team fraud on Sri Lanka on authorship of DRS shakes the Cricket establishment worldwide\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI Overview response<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The ongoing intellectual property dispute over the Decision Review System (DRS)<\/strong> has recently escalated into serious allegations of institutional fraud<\/strong> and deliberate misrepresentation<\/strong> against the International Cricket Council (ICC) legal team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversy centers on Colombo-based Sri Lankan lawyer Senaka Weeraratna<\/strong>, who designed and published the core “Player Referral” framework in March 1997 via The Australian<\/em>. This was nearly a decade before the ICC introduced its system. For over a decade, the ICC legal team\u2014headlined by past and present counsel such as David Becker and Jonathan Hall\u2014maintained a “no awareness” defense<\/strong>, claiming the governing body independently built the DRS and that Weeraratna waived his rights by publishing openly without a patent. [1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a>, 4<\/a>, 5<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shift from negligence to fraud<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cricket establishment has been severely shaken by recent evidence establishing actual physical notice<\/strong>. Records reveal that in July 2008, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials physically handed a comprehensive dossier detailing Weeraratna’s 1997 blueprint to then-ICC General Manager of Cricket, David Richardson, in Colombo. The same dossier was delivered by Nishantha Ranatunga directly to the ICC headquarters in Dubai in June 2009. [1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal advocates argue that maintaining a denial of knowledge while in physical possession of stamped prior art transitions the ICC\u2019s defense from structural negligence into an active cover-up<\/strong> and material misrepresentation<\/strong>. This exposes past and present ICC legal advisors to credible threats of professional malpractice and fraud claims under global copyright frameworks like the Berne Convention, which protects an author’s moral right to attribution regardless of a patent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domestic backlash in Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The friction has intensified globally and locally due to a highly controversial corporate governance decision by Sri Lanka Cricket: [1<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n