Cricket: Sports Minister to play pacemaker role in Sanath-Sumathipala dispute

Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera says that he is confident that he will be able to bridge the widening gap between the Sri Lanka Cricket administration and the chairman of cricket selectors Sanath Jayasuriya. 

The Sports Minister said “Yes, I met Sanath with regard to his concerns and we had a lengthy chat regarding them. I do not think there is any matter that could not be solved. At the moment there is a family bereavement at the SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala’s family, so I intend calling the SLC President, the SLC secretary Mohan de Silva and a few others and discuss the prevailing situation on January 5 and iron out the differences.” 

The differences between the selection committee chairman Jayasuriya and SLC chairman Sumathipala were in the air for some time and early last week it flew out of the bag with the reported letter of resignation handed over to the minister by Jayasuriya. 

It is said that at one point Sumathipala had to caution Jayasuriya and had requested the selection committee chairman to work along with Cricket Committee chairman Aravinda de Silva. 

The world renowned southpaw did not take this move kindly. 

The other dispute was said to be over the decision to stop a tour selector from being a member of the touring squad – a practice which prevailed during the former administration headed by Jayantha Dharmadasa – one of the vice presidents at present. 

Last week Jayasuriya told our sister paper that he had not forwarded his resignation to, but, admitted that he was awaiting a meeting with the Sports Minister. 

On Saturday (31) Jayasuriya could not be contacted for comment about the prevailing situation. 

During the last Test match which Sri Lanka lost there were several questions regarding selection matters. 

The question that came into a lot of focus was the decision to send in Kusal Janith Perera to bat at no 3 when he had been scoring more runs as a lower middle order batsman.