Cricket mess: Arjuna hits out

‘Selectors should resign if they can’t do their job’

By S.R. Pathiravithana

Sri Lanka’s World-Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga yesterday came out hard on the present state of cricket in the country, saying he may have to step in to undo the present mess.

He said “It’s sad to see things deteriorating fast. I feel that if the cricket selectors cannot do their job in a proper manner and if there is unwelcome outside interference, they should resign and go home. In the first instance they were appointed to that place by the minister himself.”

The former national skipper made these remarks in the wake of Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge overruling the National Selectors’ decision.

The selectors had decided to leave out opening batsman Marvan Atapattu when he declined to meet them for a meeting that was meant to bring him back to the mainstream after his self-imposed cricket exile.

Subsequently Marvan was included in the tour squad as the seventeenth member with Sri Lanka Cricket having to foot the entire tour cost of the additional player.

“I foresaw this situation a long time ago and I even cautioned President Mahinda Rajapaksa on this eventuality some time ago. Yes, there have been politicians involved in sport in the past, and some of them did a damn good job of it. But, in the present context such sports-friendly politicians are hard to come by,” Ranatunga said.

An outspoken politician who still is a government back bencher added, “I am not afraid to point out if any one is going down the wrong alley, but at the moment, I prefer to stay out of the mainstream of activities. But, I know some day I will have to comeback into the mainstream and untangle this whole mess that they have created for themselves”.