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SL cricket negotiating financial bail out with SL govt

The Sri Lankan Cricket Board expects the government to assist with the financing of two new stadia that contributed greatly to the Board's financial debts last year.

The Board's treasurer, Nuski Mohamed said:

"We talked with the national treasury twice about the stadium debt, and we are discussing it with them now,"

"The ICC has also told us that because this debt has had such a major bearing on our balance sheet, we should somehow negotiate to get that money from the government. As far as I see it, the government has said it would look at things and take over that debt, but there has not been a concrete outcome there yet."

The Board owed almost $70 million after the building of Hambantota and Pallekele, and the renovation of the Premadasa stadium in Colombo.

Mohamed added:

"During the year, we made a profit of 1.369 billion rupees (approx $10.9 million). Most of that surplus went to the payment of capital and interest to the bank, in order to reduce our liabilities. The liabilities we took over at the time were almost US $18.5 million, and I am pleased to inform you that the current liability position is a little over $10 million with the Bank of Ceylon."

"Because we don't have many tours this year, our cashflow is low. As a result we asked the bank to spread our loan repayments over 36 months, rather than 24 months as originally planned, so that we can get a little bit of relief."

"If you look at it on the international level, interest is only about 3 or 3.5%. The interest on the loans given to us are higher than that. I don't think that given the interest rates in Sri Lanka, they will lower them that much, but even if they lower it by half a per cent or one per cent, that would be a big amount for us."

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