SLC stop short of naming national selectors
In a surprise move, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is to transfer responsibility for picking national selectors to the recently formed National Sports Selection Committee (NSSC) and National Sports Council (NSC) after it could not submit a list of ten names to be sent to the Sports Minister for approval.
The Sports Ministry requested the Board to add six more names to the list of four names it had earlier forwarded to be considered as cricket selectors. SLC had nominated current selectors Ashantha de Mel, Chaminda Mendis and Vinothan John with the addition of Pramodya Wickremasinghe but did not get approval as it did not comply with the Sports Law which requires ten names to be given for the Minister’s consideration.
The Sports Minister recently issued strict guidelines on the appointment of selectors with the power of making recommendations to selection committees of sports bodies transferred to the National Sports Selection Committee, a body earlier identified as ‘Selection Committee’.
At present, selectors are nominated by respective associations and the Sports Minister is required by law to rubber stamp them on the recommendations he receives from them.
“We sent four names adding Pramodya Wickremasinghe into the existing team led by Ashantha de Mel,” said a senior SLC official. “However, the ministry informed us to add six more names to the list. Since these appointments are now vetted by the National Sports Selection Committee and the National Sports Council, we thought to ask their help to make nominations.”
The NSSC headed by Commander of the Army Shavendra Silva includes former Sri Lanka opener and veteran cricket administrator Sidath Wettimuny. The NSC is headed by Mahela Jayawardene and includes batting great Kumar Sangakkara.
“There are some respected individuals in these committees and they can invite some of the respected former cricketers to join the committee who have otherwise refused to work with SLC due to various reasons,” he explained.
Meanwhile, there is strong dissent over the nomination of Pramodya Wickremasinghe to the committee. Wickremasinghe, a World Cup winning fast bowler publicly accused the national side of “unnatural match patterns” and player selections after Sri Lanka lost an ODI series 3-2 to Zimbabwe at home in 2017. The team was then captained by Angelo Mathews who is still an integral part of the national team.