The anatomy of a dispute

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) would not vote blindly with the India-dominated Asian Bloc in the future as the country's cricketing relations with world cricket's powerhouse India reached its lowest ebb in recent times, SLC sources told "Daily Mirror".

This stance was conspicuous at last Sunday's teleconference among all ICC Board Directors to take a decision on the troubled the Champions Trophy when India had insisted successfully that the tournament should not be moved out of Pakistan.

Pakistan cricket authorities have also accused Sri Lanka of conniving with some of the other countries to move the tournament out of Pakistan into Sri Lanka.

Pakistan's fears were justified at the teleconference when Australia and New Zealand were adamant to move the tournament to Sri Lanka.

However India had firmly said that they will stand by Pakistan in the hour of crisis and had insisted that the hosting rights of the tournament belongs to Pakistan and had refused indirectly to re-locate it to any other country despite the agitation by some other countries including the West Indies.

Hierarchy of the Indian cricket board would be in Colombo for the last three ODI's between India and Sri Lanka but will not have any official discussions with SLC, sources added.

The Indo-Lanka cricket relationships gradually turned sour since present SLC interim chief Arjuna Ranatunga assumed office early this year.

Ranatunga criticized the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), comparing Twenty20 Cricket to Maggi instant noodles, initially angering the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) which organizes the IPL.

When India lost the first match of the recent three-match test series against Sri Lanka, Ranatunga criticized the Indian batsmen, saying they were in too much of a hurry due to the effects of Twenty20 cricket.

An angry Indian cricket chief Sharad Pawar had reportedly called Ranatunga after the comment and had shown his displeasure.

Ranatunga had also made a comment that BCCI had promised to remunerate other cricket boards for releasing their players for the IPL, but SLC had not received a cent yet. IPL chief Lalit Modi immediately denied the report while the BCCI reacted strongly canceling a 2011 World Cup organizing committee meeting that was to be held on August 8 in Colombo.

Earlier Sri Lanka's interests clashed with BCCI when Ranatunga tried to organize an ad-hoc series against Pakistan to step in when Australia cancelled their tour to Pakistan.

It was to clash with the IPL dates, but the tour was later cancelled when Sri Lanka players protested against the tour.

Ranatunga then unilaterally arranged another ad-hoc tour to England without consulting the players or his own interim committee. The tour is to clash with the next IPL tournament and it has not gone down well with the BCCI, as well as with Sri Lanka players who are not on friendly terms with the former Sri Lanka captain over the issue.

The planned series is now on hold after the cricketers complained to the President Mahinda Rajapakse on the matter when they met the him after winning the recent Asia Cup.

Sources said that sports minister Gamini Lokuge would call a special meeting on August 30 to discuss the issue of the series.

Sri Lanka's cancelled ODI series against India in 2006 had been rescheduled to 2009 earlier but the series has been postponed further due to the IPL. BCCI had promised SLC to arrange it on a later date, but it hangs on the balance due to the issue of the England series.

Analysts said that a tour to England would not yield about US $ two million, but said that a home series against India would earn more than US $ 15 million. SLC which was running on a bank overdraft of over Rs. 400 million earlier this year, just managed to come out of their financial quagmire only thanks to the present series against India.

Meanwhile BCCI has also been angered by SLC choosing two cricketers involved with the rival ICL tournament to give away awards during the present series against India.