Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) “Sports City” project in Jaffna is part of Cricket Board’s National Pathway Program to provide equal opportunities for talent across the island and is described as a symbol of national unity, aiming to bring all communities together through sport. It will also put Sri Lanka in a position to host a World Cup on their own. However, a certain group of INTERESTED PARTIES is desperately trying to sabotage the ambitious Sports City project, by disturbing Maitland Place through various kinds of hurdles and court cases!
In the first week of September, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) laid the foundation stone for the construction of the new Jaffna International Cricket Stadium, which will have a capacity of 40,000. The stadium will be located in Mandaitivu in the city of Jaffna. The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Sri Lanka President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
Jaffna International Cricket Stadium will be Sri Lanka’s seventh international-standard cricket venue and the fifth to be equipped with floodlights, enabling it to host day-night matches. The construction of the stadium forms part of SLC’s broader vision to establish a 138-acre sports city in Jaffna. The planned sports city is also set to feature a swimming pool complex, a multi-sport indoor arena, hotels and restaurants, a shopping mall, and entertainment facilities. The stadium itself will be built on a 48-acre plot of land. The stadium will feature 10 centre wickets with boundary distance extending up to 80 metres, exceeding international standards. The stadium will be built in four phases, the first of which will centre on the venue’s pavilion.
Upon the completion of the Jaffna International Cricket Stadium, the Island nation will be thinking about stepping up to the next grade – playing host to a World Cup tournament on its own. Sri Lanka has the logistics to push for a World Cup, along with five International venues – Kandy, Dambulla, SSC, Galle and the R Premadasa Stadium. With another International stadium with floodlights, Sri Lanka will be fully equipped to stage a World Cup.
There is a group of people though, who are desperate to derail SLC’s plan to claim for a World Cup on its own, as well as to disturb the functioning of the board before the next T20 World Cup early next year, which Sri Lanka is co-hosting along with India. A court case, based on baseless allegations during board election in May this year, is already going on In the Supreme court. The general belief in the Sri Lanka Cricket fraternity is that businessman Upali Dharmadasa is the one, who is spending money for this. Estranged brother of SLC vice president International Cricket Jayantha Dharmadasa, Upali has long been trying to parachute at Maitland Place through various ways. Upali, who was president at Maitland Place in the past and also headed Interim committees, still dreams of becoming SLC president and it is speculated that he has joined hands with a tainted former cricket administrator to fulfill his dream.
In one such attempt, In August 2023, Upali threw a dinner party for over half a dozen opposition MPs at Colombo’s Waters Edge. Interestingly, Upali’s dinner diplomacy took place barely a few hours before SLC’s then administration’s public examination in the parliament, over a debate on its audit report, focusing on T20 World Cup spendings.
Interestingly, when last time Upali was around Maitland Place, the board went bankrupt and eventually was dissolved by Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgama, after being beleaguered in financial difficulties after millions of dollars were spent on constructing three new stadiums for the 50 over Cricket World Cup 2011, which was co-hosted by Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. At that time, the two new grounds in Hambantota and Pallekele and extensive renovations for the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo condemned SLC to a debt of almost $70 million.
At that time, SLC had not even been able to pay the salaries of their staff or the cricketers. When all this chaos was happening, Upali was the president of SLC!
Nishantha Ranatunga, SLC’s secretary that time, had famously responded to criticism of the board’s financial management, saying expensive stadiums in Hambantota and Pallekele were built with the wider national economy in mind!
Fast forward to November 2025, when Shammi Silva led SLC intends to push for a sole World Cup hosting claim by making another International stadium, they are facing hurdles from the same group of people!
