Even though Sri Lanka team has blessed with a visionary and aggressive Coach in Chandika Hathurusingha, the continues baised and clueless selection of Chief selector Graeme Labrooy has been destroying all the momentum. The Half a dozen of selection blunders in Nidahas trophy proved that Labrooy is not suitable to be a Chief selector.
The Honeymoon period of Sri Lanka team’s newly brought Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha has officially been over with his side’s disastrous showing in Nidahas trophy.
After a successful Bangladesh tour, where Sri Lanka won three trophies in a single month, Hathurasingha has become a ‘Messiah’ for the island. There were even jokes started to overflowing that he is that kind of magician that can do anything, and is eligible to Coach even political parties of the country.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t win Nidahas trophy for die Sri Lanka fans, even after being host!
However, he did nothing wrong, expect for being mute regarding Continues selection blunders of the chief selector Graeme Labrooy.
Right from the beginning, when he replaced Legendary Sanath Jayasuriya as the Chairman of selectors in September last year, Labrooy has become notorious for certain things.
The foremost thing is he always prefer one politically inclusion in the team, in order to be safe and get the blessings of those Politicians, who are more interested in cricket than their political things! For Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka for t20 series last year, he brought Chaturanga De Silva and Sachith Pathirana from nowhere. He repeated both of them during the India tour as well. However, both of them couldn’t connect bat and ball together!
For Nidahas trophy, he mysteriously rediscovered Jeevan Mendis! Being an allrounder, jeevan Mendis could have been an impact player for Sri Lanka tour years ago, but then Sanath Jayasuriya curtailed his opportunities. Now, he has almost 35 year old, past his prime, even then Labrooy placed him into the team, by discarding 22 year old young n potential Wanindu Hasaranga, just because he failed in few matches here and there.
As expected, Jeevan Mendis turned out one of the biggest flop of Sri Lanka disastrous Campaign, with both bat and ball.
As a batsman There is no need to mention his scores in the tournament, because they were like single digit mobile number! As a bowler, captain’s didn’t trust on him either.
The other thing Graeme Labrooy always does : is to select wrong players for the certain formats. Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep are two of the best Test bowlers for Sri Lanka in last two years. However, now Labrooy has been trying to remodel them for the shorter formats. In Nidahas trophy, both of them remained thoroughly ineffective!
Another certain thing, Labrooy always does : is to ignore Right players for the certain formats. Under the regime of Sanath Jayasuriya, Vikum Sanjaya, Dilshan Munaveera prospered big time and gave big hope for a bright future.
However, as soon as Labrooy took over, he completely discarded both of them without a proper explanation.
Being a hard hitting top order batsman and an more than useful bowler, Munaveera could have been a great asset into t20 squad. However, Labrooy preferred Dhananjaya De Silva over him. Dhananjaya De Silva has become the best test batsman for Sri Lanka in recent months, however now Labrooy is experimenting on him, by picking for the t20 cricket!
As for as the continues snub of Lasith Malinga is concerned, Maybe Labrooy has got clear message from his bosses that he must not play for Sri Lanka again. That’s why, no logic to discuss why he has been trying his best to give a early retirement life to Malinga!
With all those notorious qualities, it’s high time for Sri Lanka to decide whether Graeme Labrooy is suitable to be the chief selector!
