'The Island', quoting SLC documents said Ranatunga was removed "after the BCCI applied pressure on the Sri Lankan government". Ranatunga was unavailable for comment on the matter.
The paper says an offer was made by the English Cricket Board (ECB) when Ranatunga was the head of SLC, for Sri Lanka to play a Test series in England, but the dates were clashing with the 2009 edition of the IPL.
Ranatunga's request for the players to return early from the IPL was staunchly resisted by the players. As there was no softening of the stance by Ranatunga, the BCCI summoned a Sri Lankan delegation to come over to Bangkok for talks.
During the meeting held in Bangkok in October 2008, the BCCI was represented by sacked IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi, current President N Srinivasan and the then secretary Niranjan Shah.
The newspaper claimed that the SLC delegation was warned of dire consequences unless they toed the BCCI line. MORE PTI Cor PM