Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has come down heavily at a local news publication, calling one of its reports about the men's team's drinking party inaccurate. The said publication did a report alleging that five top Sri Lankan players were involved in a drinking party just before their opening T20 World Cup match against South Africa in New York and SLC has categorically refuted it saying that it is false and fabricated in its entirety.
"SLC categorically and strongly refutes the contents of the article and confirms that no such incidents, as described, have occurred. Therefore, SLC states unequivocally that the news report is entirely false, fabricated, and baseless," SLC said in a statement on Tuesday, July 9.
"We vehemently believe that such false reporting unfairly damages the reputation of Sri Lanka Cricket, its officials, and the players.
"In light of the said false allegations, Sri Lanka Cricket has requested that the respective newspaper publish a ‘Right of Reply’ to address and rectify the damage caused to Sri Lanka Cricket," SLC further said.
The said article also mentioned that an assistant coach and a player-manager were also part of that gathering while condemning the presence of the latter. It went to the extent of calling the aforementioned manager's involvement with Sri Lanka cricket as a menace and something that has been detrimental to the team's performances recently.
Sri Lanka's first-round exit in the T20 World Cup hasn't been taken well back at home with the consultant Mahela Jayawardene and coach Chris Silverwood tendering their resignation post a forgetful campaign for the 2014 champions. Sri Lanka were able to win just one game, against the Netherlands while they lost to South Africa and Bangladesh. Their game against Nepal was washed out.
Sri Lanka faced South Africa in their opening fixture and was shot out for a paltry 77 even though the pitch was tricky for the batters.
