The sports minister himself called the outgoing officials as “mafia,” yet he is upset by Sangakkara’s comments. In an hour-long speech at the MCC Spirit of Cricket Lecture at Lords, Sangakkara also mentioned about the mismanagement in Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in his home country. At the end of the speech, Sangakkara became the first man to get a standing ovation for the Cowdrey lecture on the Spirit of Cricket since Desmond Tutu in 2008. The most absorbing part of his speech dealt with the attack on Sri Lankan team in Pakistan. Sangakkara held the audience spellbound while he told his story.

I was really moved by his presentation and listened to his speech twice over. “Sangakkara is whip smart and knife sharp, his skills as a speaker having been honed in Colombo Law College where he was an outstanding student,” a British mediaperson reported. “His speech eschewed the more predictable issues of the moment. It was typical of the man, who is a credit to his sport and his country” was another report carried by The Guardian. If the sport minister is a wise person he should congratulate Sangakkara for his marvelous speech in the headquarters of cricket at Lords and immediately order a probe into the allegation of corruption in the SLC. We hope that sanity will prevail.