Thaindian News

Colombo, Apr. 12 (ANI): Being a finalist in the cricket World Cup for a second consecutive time has not helped Sri Lanka financially, it seems.

Sri Lanka Cricket today said it has to pay off 23 million dollars in debt after cost overruns and hefty bills incurred for building stadiums for the recent World Cup.

“We spent a lot of money to host the World Cup, to build two stadiums and rebuild one stadium. The World Cup left us a 2.5 billion rupee deficit,” the New Zealand Herald quoted Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage, as telling reporters here.

Sri Lanka, which lost the final to India by six wickets, hosted 12 matches during the World Cup, with others held in India and Bangladesh.

The island built two new grounds in the southern town of Hambantota and the central town of Pallekele, while nearly eight million dollars was spent to renovate the Colombo-based R. Premadasa stadium.

“We spent about five billion rupees to build the three World Cup venues,” Aluthgamage said.

The minister said the governing body was forced to pledge the newly built stadiums, along with income from upcoming tours, as collateral to raise funds to pay for the lavish tournament that ended on April 2.

“We are not in a serious cash crisis.Building new stadiums costs a lot of money. You must look at it as an investment for the future development of the game,” Aluthgamage said.

Sri Lanka Cricket treasurer Sujeewa Rajapakse said the board took a 21.5 million dollar loan from state-run Bank of Ceylon and another 3.5 million dollar loan from the International Cricket Council (ICC) to tide them over the shortfall.

“We are expecting USD 25 million from the ICC soon, by way of hosting rights. Once that comes, we can sort things out,” Rajapakse said. (ANI)