The Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports has suspended the registrations of Sri Lanka’s badminton and cycling associations by Extraordinary Gazette, the second such intervention to surface in two days.
Hiru News reported on Saturday afternoon that a gazette notification had been issued suspending the registration of the Sri Lanka Badminton and Cycling associations.
The step follows the same minister’s suspension of motor sport’s national federation, reported on Saturday morning and made under Sections 32 and 33 of Sports Law No. 25 of 1973, which allow the minister to suspend a national sports association’s registration and vest its administration in the ministry pending a new constitution and fresh elections.
What the gazettes provide
Hiru’s account is brief. The aggregator Newswire, which is not a verified newsroom and so does not count toward this article’s sourcing, published a fuller description on Saturday morning which is recorded here because it is specific and checkable.
On that account the minister, Sunil Kumara Gamage, issued two separate Extraordinary Gazettes — one for the Cycling Federation of Sri Lanka, one for Sri Lanka Badminton — both dated 20 October 2026 and both made under Sections 32 and 33 of the Sports Law.
Rather than vesting control in the ministry secretary, as the motor sport gazette did, these appoint separate transformation committees: the cycling committee chaired by Anura Mahaarachchi, the badminton committee headed by M.H.S.S. Kusum Kumara. Both are tasked with investigating fraud, corruption and other irregularities, introducing new constitutions, registering eligible members and convening special and annual general meetings, and both are authorised to run the bodies until new office-bearers are elected. Elections are required within 90 days of the new constitutions being registered. The cycling notification is also said to revoke an Extraordinary Gazette issued on 21 August 2025.
The 20 October date settles an open question
If the gazettes are dated 20 October, they resolve something this archive flagged on Saturday morning. The motor sport gazette was reported without a number or a date, and the only evidence of when it was made was the word “Tuesday” on the reproduced masthead — which narrowed it to the 6th, 13th, 20th or 27th. A second set of sports gazettes dated Tuesday 20 October makes the 20th the likely date of that one too, and explains why the reports lagged the gazette by four days.
That date also matches the separate Prisons Department gazette on monks’ robes published this week, whose own first page is numbered 2511/30 and dated 20 October 2026 — the same Extraordinary Gazette issue.
A caution on the count
A search for this story returns a Daily FT report headlined “Minister of Sports suspends four sports bodies for election purposes”, which appears current and describes the same mechanism. It is dated 31 May 2024 and concerns a different set of suspensions under a previous minister. It is noted here only because the headline is easy to mistake for today’s event; two bodies were suspended in the gazettes reported on Saturday, not four.
Not reported
Neither filing gives a reason for either suspension — no audit, finding, dispute or complaint is cited. Neither names the suspended office-bearers, says whether either body has responded, nor states what happens to athletes in international competition during the suspension. Sri Lanka Badminton’s standing with the Badminton World Federation, and the cycling body’s with the UCI, are not addressed; international federations have in the past suspended national bodies placed under government control.
Hiru News was the only verified newsroom whose filing on these two suspensions could be dated at the time of writing.
Sources: Sports Minister suspends registration of badminton and cycling associations through Extraordinary Gazette notification — Hiru News, October 24 (Sinhala).
