N Krishnamurthy in Cricket Age, 23 November 2018, where the title is “Graeme Labrooy to be sacked, Ashantha De Mel likely to be SL Chief Selector”
Graeme Labrooy, the incompetent chairman of selectors of Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC), is likely to be sacked after the conclusion of the England series, Cricket Age reliably learns. Sri Lanka have already lost ODI, T20 and test trophies against England and the third test begins today. “Yes. Discussions are going on to replace Labrooy. We will be able to come to the conclusion only after the ongoing series” a top SLC Official told Cricket Age. When further inquired, Cricket Age learnt that the Sports Minister Faizer Mustapha has already given the node to sack Labrooy. Moreover, former Sri Lanka player Ashantha De Mel’s name has been proposed to replace Labrooy.
Bowling spearhead during Sri Lanka’s initial years as test nation, De Mel played 17 tests and 57 ODIs. After retirement, he also served on the interim committee of SLC and was a national selector and manager f the U19 team’s in past.
Labrooy’s tenure, meanwhile, has already been termed as the worst in Sri Lanka cricket history. He will be remembered as a clueless, biased, incompetent, arrogant chief selector, who always selected players on outside influence.
In his two tenures collectively, Labrooy could not unearth a single future player for Sri Lanka cricket. Instead, he mysteriously continued to pick ‘forgotten’ players like Jeevan Mendis, Chaturanga De Silva, Sachith Pathirana from nowhere, completely on the influence of certain parties. For the ongoing test series against England, Labrooy brought discarded opener Kaushal Silva from nowhere, and he has also turned a disaster with four forgettable scores in two tests so far. In between, he tried his best to ruin the career of Sri Lanka’s most iconic player Lasith Malinga on the behalf of a former Sports Minister.
Moreover, he has proved again and again that he doesn’t care about Sri Lanka Cricket and prefers his ICC match referee responsibility over anything. Even right now, when Sri Lanka is playing a home series against England, Labrooy is performing his ICC match referee responsibility in West Indies in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup. For last one and half year, he has only been a ‘rubber stamp’ for those, who wants to bring their favourites into the national team.
Sri Lanka performance under Graeme Labrooy selection (15 Sep 2017)
Matches – 51
Won – 15
Lost – 31
Draw – 4
NR – 1
T20I – 14
Won – 4
Lost – 10
ODI – 25
Won – 7
Lost – 17
NR – 1
Test – 12
Won – 4
Lost – 4
Draw – 4
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Graeme Labrooy is presently in the West Indies as one of the ICC Match Referees. the photo below is from a previous stint.
HARARE, ZIMBABWE – MARCH 16: Overseen by Ian Bishop (L), Match Referee Graeme La Brooy, Graeme Creemer of Zimbabwe and William Porterfield of Ireland take part in the coin toss before The ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier between Ireland and Zimbabwe at The Harare Sports Club on March 16, 2018 in Harare, Zimbabwe. (Photo by Julian Herbert-IDI/IDI via Getty Images)
An EDITORIAL NOTE: N.Krishnamurthy is a stirrer and one has to be cautious about his products. Oftentimes they seem designed to create dissension within Sri Lankan cricket circles. The question, then, is this: is this just sensationalist fake news? or os he deliberately sowing conflict?