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Interim committee don pads for their innings
By Marlon Fernandopulle
After weeks of uncertanity and speculation the Interim Committee took full control of the island’s Cricket Administration and are looking ahead of fast tracking a host of issues that were not resolved due to the fiasco that prevailed over the control of the sport during the last few weeks.

The appointment of a National Coach, signing of player contracts, finalizing the team sponsor and arrangements pertaining to the hosting of West Indies A (end May) and India, West Indies (mid July) have emerged as top priorities for the Jayantha Dharmadasa led Interim committee. Already the IC has appointed four sub committees along with a chairman to each sub committee in order to streamline proceedings and get the ball rolling. The four sub-committees and chairmen are-- Tour organizing (Jeewaka Fernando), Umpires (Mahinda Seneviratne), Tournament (Prasanna Fernando) and National Development (Priyantha Algama).

As one of its top priorities the IC will appoint the National coach this week. According to the Secretary of the IC Tryphon Mirando three contenders are in the running to succeed John Dyson whose contract came to an end at the end of Sri Lanka's tour of New Zealand. "We have short listed a few candidates and will make a final decision this week". Mirando declined to reveal names for obvious reasons but confirmed that the appointment of the coach would be up to the 2007 world cup. Despite several names coming up in the media from time to time The Sunday Times learns that the race for the coach is very likely to be between Australians Tom Moody, Dean Jones and Greg Chappell. Ironically all three names have also been associated with India who are reported to be finalizing their coach today. When asked whether the candidates were hesitant in negotiating terms with a Ministry appointed Interim committee Mirando said, "No that was never a problem. In fact today the new legislation has provided us with more teeth".

The IC is also expected to finalize the usual twelve months player contracts shortly. Mirando confirmed that there will not be tour by tour contracts anymore. "We will revert back to the usual procedure where selected players are given 12 month contracts. Last year nine players were contracted and this year we expect the selectors to give us the names shortly so that we can finalize the player contracts"

In one of its first major shake -ups the IC axed chairman of selectors Ashantha de Mel and Ranjith Madurusinghe from the seven member selection committee and appointed Lalith Kaluperuma as the new chairman of selectors. Although it was widely speculated that the seven member committee will be reduced this year, the move to axe Ashantha de Mel was a surprise. The new panel will be Lalith Kaluperuma, K M Nelson, Don Arunasiri, Pramodya Wickremasinghe and Shabbir Asgerally. IC Secretary Tryphon Mirando confirmed to The Sunday Times that his committee had recommended the five names of the new selection committee to the minister. The first task of Kaluperuma and his co-selectors would be to name the contracted players for this year and pick the Sri Lanka A team for this month’s West Indies A tour.

The IC will also have to nominate a member to the ICC-Cricket Committee as Sri Lanka's current representative Aravinda De Silva a former captain and vice President of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has declined to sit on the ICC-CC in future. The ICC -CC is made up former test cricketers and has Sunil Gavaskar as its chairman. De Silva who is held in high esteem by the ICC was also one of the five members in the ICC bowling review group which recently reviewed and proposed the changes to the degree of flexion allowed for bowlers. He is currently in the five member selection panel of the ICC that is expected to name the rest of the world test and one day sides to play Australia later this year.

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