Sri Lanka’s new chairman of cricket selectors Upul Tharanga has become the latest virtuous official in a long list of disciplinarians merely excellent at talking about player discipline but taking a back seat when cricketers violate their code of conduct.
Tharanga was in the hot seat of picking players not only on current form but at a time when the incumbent captain of the ODI team Kusal Mendis who also plays for the elite Sinhalese Sports Club smashed the glass door of rival club Bloomfield and got away scot-free in January this year during a domestic match.
But Tharanga made no mention of taking Mendis to task other than to draw reference to the recalling of wicket-keeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella into the T20 squad for the current series against Bangladesh and backing his decision on discipline.
“Discipline is important and there is no doubt about it. I have spoken to Dickwella about his conduct which is important for team unity and moving forward. To me discipline is more important than performance,” said Tharanga.
Dickwella became the bad boy of the team in the eyes of Sri Lankan cricket followers when on a tour of England in 2021 he violated a night time curfew and Covid 19 health protocol and was banned for 12 months.
He has not played in a T20 International in two years and eight months and the recalling of the 30-year old southpaw according to Tharanga is both an injury replacement as well as Sri Lanka’s build up to the World Cup in June this year.
“We (Selectors) reached a consensus with the captain and coach looking ahead at the World Cup and the injuries to the regular players and decided that Dickwella will fit into our plans going forward. His experience matters to the team,” said Tharanga.
Dickwella was picked as cover for an injured Kusal Janith Perera who could not make the current tour of Bangladesh for a three-match T20 series.
