Donald trumps Aravinda
New Sri Lanka fast bowling coach Allan Donald in charge whilst with the national squad at practices on Friday. (Picture by Amila Gamage)
Sri Lanka Cricket has plunged into a fresh crisis with the resignation of Aravinda de Silva – the chief of its Cricket Committee and Thilanga Sumathipala’s cricket mentor — over the Allan Donald spat.
Last week Sri Lanka Cricket was in elation following the deal with former South Africa fast bowler Allan Donald for a two month stint – mainly during the Sri Lanka’s Champion’s Trophy excursion.
On the instruction of SLC president Sumathipala, National Captain Angelo Mathews was quoted as saying “We are indeed grateful to SLC for providing us with all the support we need both in terms of technology and expertise. I have been given the best possible team — and the resource personnel who have been supporting us are nothing short of fantastic. The addition of a legend like Allan Donald will be an invaluable step up for us, especially in English conditions. It is now up to us to give it our all in the middle and firmly raise the flag high”.
But, the move seems to have fired to the wrong bull’s eye administratively. The moment this news reached Aravinda de Silva, he fired out a letter to SLC vice president Jayantha Dharmadasa, who is in charge of International Cricket, saying that he had decided to relieve himself with national cricket duties from June 30. However after a spate of disagreements with the SLC hierarchy, Dharmadasa himself is a hesitant starter in its line-up at present. Nevertheless he was at the Donald press briefing — taking a back seat at the head table.
However the Sunday Times learns that de Silva was not happy with the state of affairs at SLC and this was not the first instance that de Silva was kept in the dark when very important cricketing decisions were taken in recent times. He has had more than one disagreement with Chief Cricket Selector Sanath Jayasuriya.
The move to sign in Donald as the fast bowling consultant was pioneered by VP Dharmadasa and Sanath Jayasuriya with the blessings of SLC President Sumathipala.
However, with this new development, Sri Lanka will not have any Sri Lankans manning pivotal positions in the coaching department during the Champions Trophy tour. In contrast the Bangladesh National team has at least three Lankans in their camp – Chandika Hathurusinghe (Head coach), Thilan Samaraweera (Batting coach) and Mario Villavarayan (Strength and conditioning Coach).
Aravinda
In Sri Lanka it will be — Graham Ford – Head Coach, Allan Donald – Consultant Fast Bowling Coach, Nic Pothus – Fielding Coach, Nick Lee – Trainer, Sriram Somayajula- Analyst. Only Ajantha Wattegama – Physiotherapist and Rohan Priyadharshana – Masseur are Sri Lankans. A name that will be conspicuous will be of fast bowling Coach Champaka Ramanayake who has been doing more than a decent job in the middle. Besides Ramanayake, Sri Lanka has Chaminda Vaas, Ravindra Pushpakumara and Nuwan Zoysa. According to our sister newspaper Lankadeepa, Aravinda de Silva, when asked about Donald’s contract, had commented, “What can a person do in two months”.
An obviously shaken Sumathipala making a statement with regard to de Silva’s resignation said, “For someone like Aravinda cricket is a full time occupation. As an administrator of his calibre, he eats drinks and sleeps cricket. It’s understandable that he needs to prioritise his personal commitments. He has supported the strategic vision of this administration and been vastly instrumental in many of the developments we have made.”
“We intend to continue to engage Ari’s expertise in our key cricketing activities on a consultancy basis”
Vice President of SLC Jayantha Dharmadasa at present is a reluctant starter and his visits to the head table rare as a result. But, as Donald was his brainwave Dharmadasa sat in the second row of the head table on that day.