Building a shadow team is our biggest challenge – Chief Selector Tharanga

Cricket Selectors Chairman Upul Tharanga (second from right) addresses the media in the presence of fellow Selectors Dilruwan Perera, Ajantha Mendis and Indika de Saram

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Unlike the previous cricket selection committee headed by former fast bowler Pramodya Wickramasinghe, the present one which former Sri Lanka ODI Captain Upul Tharanga chairs, is more forthright and never afraid of facing the media.

Since the five-member committee was appointed to the post three months ago it has always been the concept of Tharanga to meet the media and answer questions thrown at them rather than run away from it and allow distorted versions of selections appear in public.

Yesterday, the Tharanga-led committee comprising Ajantha Mendis, Dilruwan Perera and Indika de Saram (the fifth member Tharanga Paranavithana was not present as he is in Bangladesh with the national side) met the media at Sri Lanka Cricket headquarters to answer certain issues that had cropped up with the selection of the T20I side to Bangladesh.

Most notable of them was the selection of Niroshan Dickwella to replace indisposed Kusal Perera. Dickwella’s selection had caused a lot of criticism from the media because of the number of opportunities given to him and his indifferent attitude and discipline towards the game.

“Discipline is very important. I have spoken to Dickwella. From the team’s aspect it should be number one. I explained to him the importance of discipline. More important than performance is discipline,” said Tharanga.

Dickwella was selected because of his experience and because there was no young opener who is currently in form.

Tharanga said that they had spoken to Wanindu Hasaranga also about maintaining discipline. Hasaranga is suspended by the ICC for the first two T20Is against Bangladesh because of his outburst against umpire Lyndon Hannibal during the third T20I against Afghanistan.  

“I think Wanindu lost his cool in the midst of Sri Lanka losing such a tight game. But as a captain he should understand how to conduct himself. Wanindu is an important player in the team and we don’t want a repetition of what happened because it is going to cost him more than a two-match ban.”

Tharanga said the ongoing T20I series against Bangladesh was important before the T20 World Cup for Sri Lanka to finalise their squad.

“We will have to balance it with both pace and spin when picking the team. In the West Indies we will get a lot of slow wickets, but we don’t know how the wickets are in the USA. In the first round we have three matches in the USA. As far as I am aware the match in New York will be played on a drop in pitch brought from Adelaide. If you compare the wickets, we expect it to be different to those in the Caribbean,” said Tharanga.

Since the new selection committee took over Sri Lanka’s cricket has been on the upsurge with series victories over Zimbabwe in ODIs and T20Is and Afghanistan in Test, ODIs and T20Is.

“The team is playing well but when players get injured, we don’t have proper replacements in the top order. We have to balance that going forward not only in T20Is but in all three formats,” said Tharanga. “We need to build a shadow team or second-string side with at least another 20 players for the three formats. That is the biggest challenge facing us as selectors. To do that we need the help of the HPC (High Performance Centre). We also have three ‘A’ team tours taking place this year. With that I think we will get the opportunity to build a shadow team. Fast bowlers we have in stock, it is the batsmen we need to build, especially opening batsmen. We have this problem with ODIs as well. There is a big vacuum which we must try to fill without allowing it to backtrack.”

Tharanga emphasised that no player is assured of his place in the side. “Everyone has to perform, if they don’t, we will look for someone else. India has the luxury of a rotation policy because for one position they have about five players vying for it. We need to build up at least one or two players for each position.”

Sharing his views on Acting Captain Charith Asalanka, Tharanga said, “Charith has from the Under-19 age group shown his capabilities as a Captain. He is one of the most important players in the team because when he is playing you can see how much he thinks about the game. I am confident he will show his skills as Captain in the T20Is against Bangladesh.”