Sri Lanka Cricket to halve its staff

Colombo : Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the local governing cricket body is set to reduce its staff by more than a half, the Parliament was told.

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage answering a query raised by opposition legislator Dayasiri Jayasekera said that the full cadre of the SLC currently stood at 251 at the end of 2011. "Permanent staff number is 25, while 226 have been employed on contract basis", Aluthgamage said. The minister said the cadre would be reduced by 60 per cent in the near future. "Already 49 employees whose contracts had expired have been stopped work," Aluthgamage said. Sri Lanka Cricket has suffered losses, blamed on mismanagement of its coffers by politically appointed interim committees. The elections were delayed until early this year as successive interim committees ran the SLC affairs since 2005. PTI