Ashantha de Mel heads new seven-member selection committee
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will have one selection committee overlooking all selections of national men’s, women’s and junior cricket in future as the National Sports Selection Committee headed by Army Commander Shavendra Silva has recommended a seven-member new committee to overlook all selections including U-19 cricket.
The new committee headed by former Sri Lanka fast bowler Ashantha de Mel, includes Chaminda Mendis, Pramodya Wickremasinghe, Hemantha Devapriya, Ranjith Madurasingha, Uvais Karnain and Ms Nilmini Gunaratne has been recommended by the Shavendra Silva committee to the Sports Minister on Friday.
The Sports Law requires the Minister’s signature for appointment of selectors.
“They wanted to us to appoint two committees but if we do that we are flouting the Sports Law. So we recommended seven names to the Minister to be appointed as cricket selectors. They will be involved in all selections including national men’s, women’s and junior,” a National Sports Selection Committee told the Sunday Times.
“So there are seven in the committee and they can nominate individuals to look after women’s cricket and junior cricket within the committee.” De Mel was the chief selector since November 2018 and this is his third extension in the post. He has been playing the dual role of chief selector cum team manager ever since and has been widely credited for taking some radical decisions during his tenure.
Among them were the installation of Dimuth Karunaratne as Test and limited overs captain replacing Dinesh Chandimal and Lasith Malinga respectively and persisting with the young talents of Avishka Fernando, Oshada Fernando and Lasith Embuldeniya.
However, his decision to draft in several players who were out of the one-day set up for many years for the World Cup raised eyebrows. The inclusion of Jeevan Mendis and Milinida Siriwardena for the World Cup are still hard to stomach for even the most ardent supporter of de Mel.
Chaminda Mendis, a key member of the cricket selection committee under de Mel has retained his position but not Vinothan John. John was part of the previous three-member selection committee but his name has not been approved this time. World Cup winning cricketer Pramodya Wickremasingha has returned as a selector once again having previously served in 2013 under Sanath Jayasuriya. His inclusion raised a few eye-brows. He publicly accused cricketers of throwing the cricket series against Zimbabwe in 2017 and called for an inquiry. Some of the cricketers he indirectly accused are still part of the national team.
Madurusingha who was the head of the junior selection committee also finds a place in the new committee along with Devapriya who was in-charge of women’s cricket for a long time. Karnain another new addition to the selection committee is a former Sri Lanka allrounder who represented Sri Lanka in 19 ODIs. Former Sri Lanka woman cricketer Nilmini Gunaratne is the only woman in the male dominated new committee.
The selectors’ first job is to finalise the Sri Lanka squad for the South African series. De Mel in consultation with the coaching staff and the captain has selected a squad for 22 players to train ahead of the series. The same squad is likely to travel to South Africa for the two-match Test series starting December 26.