Not Only Lasith Malinga, it seems Sri Lanka Chief selector Graeme Labrooy has personal vendetta against lot of certain players including Dilshan Munaveera and Vikum Sanjaya.
It seems Graeme Labrooy is on a mission to destroy certain players career! Right from the beginning, when he replaced Legendary Sanath Jayasuriya in September last year, Labrooy has become notorious for baised selections. He wants his job secure, so on political influence, brought Players like Chaturanga De Silva, Sachith Pathirana, Jeevan Mendis into the team from nowhere. Interestingly, he purposely dragged all these players into national T20 side, at a time when players like Thikshila De Silva were plundering runs with a 300 strike rate in domestic mercantile tournaments and smashing sixes for fun. Not only national team, Graeme Labrooy single handedly destroyed Sri Lanka U19 Team’s chances in the world cup by picking a political favorite player Santush Gunathilika. To make sure Gunathilika inclusion, Labrooy benched best U19 player in the Island : Hasitha Boyagoda.
Now, Labrooy has shifted his focus in domestic cricket. After the Nidahas trophy, Sri Lanka Cricket board (SLC) has announced a four-day Super Provincial tournament.
However, even for this domestic tournament, Labrooy and Co have left some Consistent Performers. Players like Dilshan Munaveera, Vikum Sanjaya, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa couldn’t find a place in any of the team.
Especially Munaveera and Vikum Sanjaya had established themselves into Sri Lanka setup with some outstanding performances during Sanath Jayasuriya regime. However, as soon as Labrooy took over, they have been thrown into wilderness completely.
Charith Asalanka is another young talent, who has made big strides into domestic cricket after a glorious School Career. He has been regarded as next big thing for Sri Lanka by many, especially in longer formats. However, He couldn’t find a place in domestic tournament even.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa is another promising player, who found himself into wilderness. He has been in form of his life in last six months, having struck some sparkling hundreds and was men of the match in recently concluded Local T20 tournament.
However, it seems They are not in the good book of Labrooy, who prefers players only with political influence or his favourites!
In his defense, as he always gives lame excuses, Labrooy can say that Bhanuka, Munaveera and Vikum Sanjaya are more suited for shorter formats. However, They have picked Thisara Perera, even after he hasn’t played longer formats cricket since last four years, only because they want to prosper him now, after impressive showing in shorter formats after the arrival of Chandika Hathurusingha.
The million dollar question is though : doesn’t Bhanuka, Munaveera and Vikum Sanjaya also deserves same kind of backing?
Another Question is : if They are only shorter formats players in his book, then why he didn’t pick them for Nidahas trophy, where he picked test players like Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep and Dhananjaya de Silva?
In another mysterious move, he ignored young talents like Bhanuka, Charith Asalanka, but picked old horses like Chamara Silva and Tharanga Parnavithana, who are not going to play for Sri Lanka!
The truth is that Labrooy only prefers baised selection. In India, Hardik Pandya was only a T20 player initially. But MSK Prasad led selection committee backed him completely and eventually now he has become a world class player in all three formats. Sadly, Labrooy doesn’t believe in this kind of things!
