Sri Lankans preparing for their gruelling series against Australia received a huge set back when the selectors were forced leave out their strike bowler Lasith Malinga who is nursing a back problem from the two T-20s which will be played at Pallekelle.
Explaining to the Sunday Times about Malinga’s injury the Chairman of the National Cricket Selection Committee Duleep Mendis said “Malinga developed a back problem while training and stopped his training a few days ago. Then the physiotherapist advised us to rest him at least for one week”.
When asked if Malinga will be available for the one-dayers as the fast bowler has retired from Test cricket Mendis said “We are monitoring his condition. However we cannot definitely say at this stage how his condition will be”
The National Selection panel headed by former national captain Duleep Mendis named a 16-man squad for the Twenty20 games against Australia August 6 and 8.
The most significant in the selection is that Angelo Mathews has been named as the Vice captain of the side and off spinning allrounder Dilruwan Perera makes a comeback while young fast bowler Shaminda Eranga who is doing well with the Sri Lanka ‘A’ side in England also has been given the nod.
The two Twenty20s will be played at the Pallekelle International Stadium in the central town of Kandy which will also host the opening one-dayer and the second Test match.
The Squad: Tillakaratne Dilshan (captain), Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews (vice captain), Jeevan Mendis, Dilruwan Perera, Thisara Perera, Dhammika Prasad, Suranga Lakmal, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, Rangana Herath, Chamara Silva and Shaminda Eranga
Meanwhile former national cricket captain Michael Tissera who has served the game in many capacities has been appointed as the Chairman of the SLC’s new Cricket Committee.
The other members of the committee will be Sidath Wettimuny, former national fast bowler Kapila Wijeguwardena and former wicket-keeper Amal Silva who also did served as a national cricket selector very recently.
Explaining the mechanism of the cricket committee Sidath Wettimuny who is also a member of the SLC interim committee said “Our main aim is to guide the game with a forward plan. We will be essentially a consultative group where the SLC’s employees will be the main implementers. We will sit with the Cricket Operations Director Ashley de Silva and Director Coaching Jerome Jayaratne.
“They will be the persons who will bring in the ideas and the plans and we will sit together with them and fine tune them so that the implementation part will be smooth”. |
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