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Sri Lanka Tennis bosses stick to their guns
By Shamseer Jaleel
The rumbles of discontent has enveloped Greenpath too. Now its the SLTA which has come into focus with the selection of the national junior under 14 side for the International Tennis Federation (ITF) championship to be held in Australia. The bone of contention seems to be that Shehan Gomes who had a higher ranking did not secure a place in the party.

However according to authoritative sources when the team for ITF tournament held last December in Vietnam was selected comprising Dinesh Kandan, Indika Wettasinghe and Shehan Gomes ( after trials) was selected, the same panel of judges were involved in selections headed by Arjun Fernando.

The former Sri Lanka Davis Cup captain Arjun Fernando along with four other selection committee members selected Kanthan, Wettasinghe directly and Eshan Jayamanne after trials. Thereafter Kanthan pulled out due to an examination, the losing finalist in the trials Arvind Fernando secured a place in the touring party according to the selection guidelines. The Sunday Times spoke to the chief national selector Arjun Fernando and the Secretary of the governing body Maxwell De Silva.

SLTA Secretary (Maxwell de Silva) said "The national selectors headed by Arjun Fernando, Aruna Seneviratne, Arjan Perera , Mohamed Iqbal and Ayendra Bandaranayake did a great job. At any given time they did not favour any one. When the tournament started we told the selection criteria very clearly and all agreed. Though Gomes was ranked eighth and Fernando (jnr) was ranked 18 at end of 2004, this has no bearing for this tournament except when it came to the draw for the trials. Out of a total 16 players three were selected for the tour and the tournament was worked off on a knock out basis with the winner going through to the team and the runner up as reserve. There were no irregularities in selections but we want to clear the minds of the public. He said that other than the Sports Minister no one could dissolve the panel of selectors.

Then the chairman of Selectors (Arjun Fernando) commenting on the matter said "The selections were done according to the set criteria and guidelines which were given before the trials by the Selection Committee. I was not involved with the draw of this tournament or for that matter in any draws for any tournament".

"We adopted the same selection criteria for Vietnam at the beginning of the year for this age group and there were no objections raised. We therefore used the same criteria for the Australian event, and also selection of the forthcoming U16 boys and girls teams to Phillipines and Thailand were on similar lines. Wettasinghe and Kanthan were top class players and were drafted directly to the team.

The rest of the pool members battled it out for a solitary place, and according to the selection criteria rules the winner became the third team member and the runner up a reserve for the tour. As Eshan Jayamana beat Arvind Fernando, Eshan was selected to the team leaving Arvind as reserve. The names of these three team members and reserve were then sent to the Ministry for ratification and we received Ministry approval. Subsequently, with Kanthan pulling out due to studies, Arvind stepped into the team by virtue of the set criteria".

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