SLC wants selectors to continue, but Sports Ministry on the fence
Pramodya Wickremasinghe
Currently, SLC has three sets of selectors: three members each for national and junior selections and two for women’s cricket. The Board has nominated all but one of the existing eight names to the Ministry for consideration after Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe decided to change the selectors following Sri Lanka’s first round exit at the recent T20 World Cup. They were neither asked to resign nor were they sacked by the Minister, despite there being provisions in the sports law to do so but asked SLC to nominate new names.
The Minister’s decision was greatly influenced by former cricketer-turned politician Arjuna Ranatunga, who now heads the National Sports Council, his main advisory body. Ranatunga has been a vehement critic of Wickremasinghe and his team, even publicly claiming that the selection committee does not have NSSC approval to hold office and that a new one should be formed at the earliest.
This position is, however, questionable as the NSSC had deliberated for months before making their recommendations to the then Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa, who appointed the selectors in April 2021 for an unspecified period of time. He also consulted the Technical Advisory Committee headed by Aravinda de Silva and National Sports Council led by Mahela Jayawardena.
The current national selection committee comprises Wickremasinghe, Romesh Kaluwitharana and Hemantha Wickremaratne while the junior selection committee headed by Ranjith Madurasinghe comprises Uvais Karnain and Varuna Waragoda. Hemantha Devapriya and Thilaka Gunaratne form the ladies’ selection panel. Except for Gunaratne, all others obtained SLC approval to serve as cricket selectors.
Former cricketers Vinothan John, Gamini Wickremasinghe and Shantha Kalawitigoda are the other three nominees. Apart from Kalawitigoda, each of the nine nominees has been part of the selection committees previously. This shows the lack of interest from former greats to take over the crucial role.
It’s not clear whether the Ministry would change all three sets of selectors or only the committee headed by Wickremasinghe. Sri Lanka is the only country in the world where, by law, selectors are appointed by the Sports Minister and where his signature is required for national teams to represent the country at any sporting event.
Following their appointment, the national selectors significantly overhauled Sri Lanka’s white-ball teams. They took a bold decision to sack three former captains–Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne–from white-ball cricket to make Sri Lanka a formidable team by the ODI World Cup in 2023.
But while there has been some success in T20 cricket (as they clinched the Asia Cup–the first major title in seven year–last year), the team failed to earn a direct qualification for the 50-over showpiece event later this year in India. Sri Lanka must now compete with 10 teams to earn one of the two remaining spots in the 10-team tournament.
Worsening the situation was the team’s first-round exit at the World T20 tournament in Australia and multiple disciplinary issues reported during the tournament. Following the recent Lanka Premier League (LPL), there were also calls to bring back Mathews to the ODI team to strengthen Sri Lanka’s fragile middle-order as the country has barely 11 months ahead of the ODI World Cup. But Wickremasinghe and his team have stuck with youngsters.
Questions have also been raised as to how misfiring top-order batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa has been retained for the Indian series starting this week ahead of in-form Dinesh Chandimal, who was the third highest run-scorer at the concluded Lanka Premier League. Chandimal, playing as an opener, scored 287 runs at 31.89 for Colombo Stars. Rajapaksa scored only 95 runs as he continued his poor form.