Asantha De Mel considers Sri Lanka’s Cricket Selections

BBC Sandeshaya Service

The Sri Lankan cricket team do have enough talent and it is for the players to enhance their performances, says the newly appointed chief selector. Asantha de Mel, who replaced Duleep Mendis as the head of selection committee, said the new selectors will discuss the issues related to the recent poor performance of the team when the squad is back in Sri Lanka after their current tour of South Africa. Sri Lanka has only secured a single Test win, a historic win against South Africa in South Africa, since spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan retired from Test cricket, last year.

The team has also failed to secure a single series since Tillekaratne Dilshan’s took over the reigns from Kumar Sangakkara, at the end of cricket World Cup co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

New captain? “I think there is enough talent in the team and in my opinion there is no big issue if everybody performs to their best,” the new chief selector said.

“Our first task is to study and analyse what has happened to their talent.”  Sports Minister on Thursday appointed a team headed by de Mel together with Don Arunasiri, Amal Silva and Hemantha Wickramaratne as new selectors.

De Mel said his new team’s first task is to select a team for the upcoming tour of Australia. “We had a meeting this morning and we expect to name the team within the next few days,” he told BBC Sinhala service, Sandeshaya.

Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror newspaper on Thursday said Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is planning a complete overhaul in the team as well as the administration, including sacking Dilshan as captain.

“We haven’t taken such a decision as yet,” was the response from Asantha de Mel, regarding the change of captaincy. Daily Mirror also said Dilshan is to be replaced by former captain Mahela Jayawardene, who captained from 2006-2009 and later deputised under Kumar Sangakkara.

“No we haven’t discussed it as yet,” added de Mel, who has twice before held the post as the chairman of the select committee.