Hear the rumble in jungle

Is the Sri Lankan Sports Minister the most misinformed person in the Southern hemisphere? In spite of having a plethora of choices, for the second time in as much as two weeks he has got it all wrong. This time the once dumped and re-elected former Sri Lankan opening batsman and ex-selector Amal Silva has said that he has no time for posts that are bestowed upon him that he sees only once they are reported in the newspapers.

Just after including the name of Silva Minister Lokuge went on record speaking to an Indian reporter saying “After Mahesh Gunatilleke refused to accept the post, I consulted a few prominent former cricketers and came to this conclusion”.

Then added more spices to his statement by adding “All four selectors will do an honorary job. They can get their daily allowances from the Board, but in no way can they be full time Board selectors.”

It is intriguing to note that in spite of the minister consulting a few former players on this appointment, he has not had the courtesy to just ask Amal Silva if he would consider taking the job back from which he was dumped a few days before.

Let’s go to the beginning. The saga of cricket selectors (we will confine ourselves only to the recent ones) is rather ironical than hilarious. It all began with the selection team headed by Lalith Kaluperuma had to hang their boots up after their infamous Sanath Jayasuriya issue. However it was not publicized if that team was just carrying on recommendations made by the then new coach Tom Moody or else if they were suddenly and genuinely trying to boot-out the old timers and make for new blood. However that move by the then selectors would go down as one of the most mismanaged cricketing moves in Sri Lanka’s history.
After a couple of days the then minister of Sports Jeewan Kumaratunge would have worn a ‘halo’ as ‘superman’ – Asantha de Mel saved mankind from disaster by restoring Sanath back in the side who was at that time in England. Mind you this is also after some members of the team started yapping “We still can play without Sanath”. However sanity prevailed and at the same time Sanath made poor victims of hapless English bowlers by letting his bat do the talking.

This was the end of the news ‘turning point’. The ‘superman was charged up. He began to redevelop his incongruous ability of stirring the pond, which resulted in de Mel having so many differences of opinions with the incumbent cricket administration, which is also a ministry sponsored one. I do not know if it was hot or cold, but the undeclared war like so many others had begun. Meanwhile the ministerial chairs also changed and instead of Jeewan Kumaratunge, sports had two sports ministers in Gamini Lokuge and Bandula Basnayake.

Speculations were rife Asantha de Mel’s team also were facing their end of term when the minister of sports gave them a two month reprieve and requested the administration to send in their nominees expecting them to re-name the old squad. But, the administration had other ideas and forwarded the 10th regiment which included the names of Don Anurasiri, Shabir Asgerally, Amal Silva (renamed), Ranjith Madurasinghe, Graeme Labrooy, Ashley de Silva (Sri Lanka under 19 team official), Flavian Aponso, Mahesh Gunatilleke, Ranil Abeynaike and Jayantha Seneviratne. No sooner this list was forwarded, it came back with the note – Add de Mel.

Who took charge of the list we still keep guessing. But, duly Seneviratne’s name was omitted and de Mel’s was included and resent. A little later a list of five selectors were announced. These read – Asantha de Mel, Don Anurasiri, Ranjith Madurasinghe, Mahesh Gunatilleke and Ranil Abeynaike. A few hours later the name of Abeynaike was dropped when they discovered that the latter had connections with the media. Then a few hours later Mahesh Gunetilleke pulled out stating that he was only interested in becoming a fully paid full time selector.

While these developments are taking place, Don Anurasiri is in England with the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team as tour selector.
The time was running out to select the Lankan twenty20 squad for the World Cup in South Africa. The final squad had to be selected by the 10th of August. In the final hour replacement Amal Silva told the haughty where to get off. Then finally on the 9th evening, Asantha de Mel, Ranjith Madurasinghe, Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena and a board representative without voting rights sat and selected the final twenty20 World Cup squad – Sir, was it done with the real quorum?