ICC CEO Geoff Allardice made a brief visit to Sri Lanka. There he met Sri Lanka's new Sports Minister Harin Fernando and the country's President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Last November, the ICC suspended Sri Lanka Cricket's membership and stripped it of its U19 World Cup hosting rights. The constitution of SLC was discussed among them.

The ICC's SLC was temporarily suspended due to government interference. Former sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe had tried to dismiss the entire SLC board on November 6, but the Sri Lankan government's judiciary reversed the decision the next day by issuing a stay on the minister's gazette.

However, a few days later the ICC board suspended the SLC at the behest of the SLC's own officials, who were at serious odds with the then Sports Minister Ranasinghe. With that minister now sacked and the SLC now having a minister, board members are internally confident that the SLC will be reinstated as a full member at the next board meeting.

Based on this incident, Allardice went to visit Sri Lanka. After the meeting with him, Sports Minister Harin Fernando posted on Twitter that the pair had "constructive discussions and the SLC has a way forward." After the meeting with the sports minister, Allardyce also met with President Wickremesinghe, with whom he reportedly discussed possible changes to the SLC's constitution.

Allardice will now report his observations to the ICC's board, which is due to meet in late March and is likely to have SLC membership on its agenda. 

This is the second visit to Sri Lanka by an ICC executive to understand the nature of the nexus between cricket and Sri Lankan politics. In mid-2023, ICC Deputy Chairman Imran Khawaja visited Sri Lanka to investigate possible government interference. On that occasion Khawaja was said to have found no immediate evidence to suspend the board.