Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday claimed that Sri Lanka started winning in Test cricket matches due to the removal of politicsw from the cricket administration.

Speaking at the rally in Matara to mark the first year in office of the present government, Wickremesinghe said that under the former regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa, cricket administration was highly politicized.

He said that the government will clear all other areas and developed the country in the same way it cleared cricket of political and family influences.

He also maintained that former President Rajapaksa held the 2015 Presidential Election since he could not govern the country any further. The country was in dire straits at the time, he argued.