Lasith Malinga faces SLC hurdle to feature in the IPL

Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) has decided to take a firm stance with regards to allowing paceman Lasith Malinga to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The cricket board seems to be miffed with Malinga’s attitude of picking and choosing tournaments, forcing the SLC think over giving the fast bowler ‘No Objection Certificate’ to play for the Mumbai Indians.

SLC Chief Tilanga Sumathipala said that the current status of Malinga’s fitness needs to be assessed before the board decides to give him the NOC.

“He can’t go without our permission.”

“If he defies us and go, he can only return after sitting on the bench,” Sumathipala said.

Lasith Malinga and the new SLC hierarchy don’t seem to be going along very well and both have been at a standoff since the Asia Cup T20 in February. The board administration, which was completely annoyed, had asked Malinga to leave captaincy before the World Twenty20 last month in obvious annoyance.

Although Malinga made it to Sri Lanka’s World T20 team, he once again opted out of the crucial tournament, citing fitness issues. Incidentally, he had limped off the field in his comeback match against India during the Asian Cup and could not feature in the playing XI again in the multi-nation series and missed the World T20 for the same reason as well.

As a result, Sri Lanka was forced to play the tournament without their main bowler, which turned out to be one of the main reasons for the defending champions’ ouster from the World T20 in the first round itself.