Sanath promises cricket first, politics later

• Willing to put aside political differences for good of the sport
• Mahela and Sanga essential for country’s test success but noncommittal on duo’s ODI and T20 futures

By David Ebert

The first press briefing of Sri Lanka Cricket’s new board of selectors was held yesterday at the board headquarters, giving its new Chairman Sanath Jayasuriya the opportunity to outline the board’s plans for the country’s cricketing future.

While introducing the new selectors, Jayasuriya expressed confidence that the new panel would be better suited to handling any issues. “I am very happy to be a part of this national selection panel along with the other four members who have played a lot of international and domestic cricket and possess the experience required,” he noted.

Jayasuriya, a 20-year cricketing veteran, also stated that he looked forward to beginning the task of planning and revamping the selection process based on the current selection policy and reiterated the new selection committee’s dedication and focus on the future of the sport.

Jayasuriya also promised an inclusive, hands-on approach from the new five-member selection panel, which includes former captain and UNP organiser Hashan Tillakaratne, retained as a full-time selector, along with former opening pace bowler Pramodhya Wickramasinghe, whose responsibility it will be to lead the search for raw talent at both school and club level as well as work closely with the national squad in order to get a more comprehensive approach to team selection issues.

In a much-needed and welcome move, Jayasuriya also stated that his first order of the day would be the issuing of an official circular to all clubs, which would request them to forward a list of six names of the best players from each club line-up, who would be put through an exhaustive training and selection procedure for possible future national squad call-ups.

On an altogether different note, responding to a question raised with regard to speculation that Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena would be the first victims in a new line-up shuffle, Jayasuriya stated: “I think the previous day you would have seen in the papers where I specifically said that we need senior players to go forward with test cricket and I don’t have anything to say about these allegations because we want the senior cricketers to be there for the longer version of the game in order to support the youngsters and build up their confidence.”

Jayasuriya added that the selection panel hadn’t met for discussions on the makeup of the ODI and T20 teams as yet and would only decide on the issue depending on the cricketing calendar for the year. He remained noncommittal when pushed for comment on the future of the two former captains in the shorter versions of the game.

Jayasuriya also stated that he expected the fullest cooperation from the administration as well as the Sports Ministry for the revamping of the selection process according to the selection committee’s new plans, which he promised would be free of political differences and interference for the betterment of the country and the sport overall.