Following another humiliating loss at the on-going World Cup in India, the Sri Lanka team as well as the administration has been left in bits and pieces according to an official who did not wish to be quoted.
As many as 18 players have featured in the six matches so far, three from outside the original 15-member tour party picked ahead of the World Cup and another alarming aspect is the fact that Sri Lanka Cricket has kept silent on the status of the ousted skipper Dasun Shanaka.
Shanaka is reported to have fallen foul with the team’s so-called Consulatant Mahela Jayawardena that brought about his ouster and was replaced by Kusal Mendis who has been a failure with the bat since his elevation to the captaincy.
Sri Lanka Cricket has also summoned an emergency executive committee meeting scheduled for this week and it is likely the majority of members will call for the resignation of the controversial team Selection Committee headed by Pramodya Wickremasinghe.
“Before the (sports) Minister can oust him (Wickremasinghe) SLC will take a stand and have him replaced. There are also cracks among members in the Exco over the team’s poor preparation before the World Cup and the delay in finalizing the final 15,” said the official who spoke on condition that he not be quoted.
There is also speculation that Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe who has come under fire for doing nothing to clean up the stables at SLC will present a Paper to Cabinet to call for the removal of the hierarchy running cricket and replaced with an Interim Committee.
Minister Ranasinghe in a counter move has conveyed to the International Cricket Council (ICC) that SLC officials are corrupt and living on borrowed time after they (SLC) are reported to have told the ICC the government was interfering in their affairs and making matters worse.
Skeptics however contend both Minister Ranasinghe and SLC were up to a bluff game playing for time while the team was being humiliated at the World Cup losing to South Africa, Pakistan, Australia and underdog Afghanistan while beating bottom of the table England and the unfancied Netherlands team.
Never in the history of World Cups have Sri Lanka fielded as many as 18 players in the way the team has done in the current global showpiece in India.
Some critics akin the current showing by the Sri Lanka team reminiscent to the 1999 World Cup in England where the team won just two matches and failed to make it to the second stage.
