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Selectors err again!
By Marlon Fernandopulle
The selection of Sri Lanka's squad for the England tour clearly reflects the selectors short sightedness and biasness in their thinking. If not, how could one explain the omission of Jehan Mubarak after the batsmen excelled in the recent Sri Lanka A tours of South Africa and Kenya.

While a few members of the 'A' team have been rewarded and picked for performing well and not so well, the most successful batsman on that tour has been left out from the squad of 22 and asked to perform well in the A team's next tour to India by the Chairman of Selectors, Lalith Kaluperuma, if he is to make it to the National Squad. What a ridiculous statement by the Chairman of Selectors when the batsman finished on top of the batting averages scoring centuries in South Africa and Kenya?

Kaluperuma even goes on to say that they have got reports that Mubarak is shaping well and they do not want to shatter his confidence. Shouldn't Mubarak be given the opportunity when he is shaping up well? And against an opposition like England and on home soil it would be the ideal opportunity to blood a promising youngster and give him the necessary confidence to play to his true potential. Kaluperuma and his co-selectors do not realize that by their actions they not only shatter the confidence of the youngster but even kill the guy's career.

With Sri Lanka's middle order still a worry, it is believed that the places of some senior players are under threat and could even be on the chopping block. Left hander Mubarak is one cricketer who many cricket analysts believe to be the biggest threat to Sri Lanka's existing middle order batsmen. Are Kaluperuma and co. attempting to defuse the threat by omitting Mubarak from the national squad and sending him to India with the A team during the England tour?

Prasanna Jayawardene, who has been rated as Sri Lanaka's number one wicketkeeper, has once again been sidelined by the selectors. According to Ranjith Fernando who was the manager of the recent A team tour to South Africa and Kenya, Jayawardene was 'brilliant' in his wicket-keeping but needed an improvement in his batting. This prompted the selectors to go for a wicketkeeper who is not the best in the trade, but a wicketkeeper who is also recognized as a batsman.

Thus compromising on the wicketkeeper for the sake of the batting. May be the selectors are certain that their batsmen will not perform as expected and are turning to a batsman who can also keep wickets.

One need not emphasize the importance of a wicketkeeper's role in tests and one-day cricket. Sri Lanka has gambled with wicketkeepers over the years and paid the price, but sadly they are still to learn a lesson from their past mistakes!

It's time for Sri Lanka's cricket selectors to look at the bigger picture and be more consistent with their policies and unbiased in their selections, if not Sri Lanka Cricket's ambitious vision of being the best test playing nation in five years will be only a pipe dream.

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