If You are the Chief Selector of A National Cricket Team, there must not be Conflict Of interest, must not be lack of dedication, and must not be biased Selection. Graeme Labrooy, the chief selector of Sri Lanka, scores zero in all these parameters and that’s why Sri Lanka cricket must opt for a ‘Full Time‘ selector in moving forward.
When Graeme Labrooy took over as the Chief selector in August 2017 after Sanath Jayasuriya resignation, he was a ICC match referee. in addition, he was also acting as the President of Sri Lanka players association at the time.
Immediately after his appointment as the Chief selector, there were questions regarding his multitasking! After much criticism, he was forced to give away player’s association President role in December 2017.
However, it is his role of ICC match referee, that is creating problems for Sri Lanka cricket and pushing it backward.
There is a general perception in Sri Lanka that Labrooy always put his ICC job as his first priority. In March this year, when Sri Lanka was playing a full series in Bangladesh, he was in New Zealand as an Selector for the Under 19 World Cup.
When Sri Lanka was playing in Nidahas trophy at home recently, he was in Zimbabwe, as the match referee for the World Cup qualifier matches.
Recently, Sri Lanka Domestic Clubs have raised their concern by the manner Labrooy has been functioning. Even after being the head of the selection committee, Labrooy always prefers his job as a ICC Match Referee, and seeing Sri Lanka selector job only an a part time. In Sri Lanka cricket circuit, Now there has been a pharse for Labrooy that he is the first ever ‘Skype Selectors’ in the world cricket history.
“As he himself doesn’t watch domestic matches, he always depends on his fellow selectors for picking a team. In this scenario, what is the logic to have him as the Chief selector”a president of a top domestic club told Cricket Age in terms of animosity.
“This is very unfortunate. As a Chief selector, he must have seen most of the International and domestic matches. However, he always prefers his ICC match referee duty and escape Sri Lanka duty. It seems that he is doing this only as a part time job” he added further.
In another similar episode, Sri Lanka cricket
clubs and officials have expressed dissatisfaction over the manner in which players have been selected to four teams for the ongoing inter province cricket tournament.
The selections were done by the committee headed by Labrooy, while he had not been in the country while the final selections were being done. At that time, he was serving as a referee at the world cup semi-finals in Harare.
After that particular incident many domestic clubs raised their concern and blamed that Although he is the Chairman of the selection committee, he dedicates more time as an ICC referee instead of viewing domestic games to make the selections.
The truth is that, It has become a norm with Labrooy, since his appointment as the Chief selector. Whenever Selection committee finalize a squad, he connects with other selectors via Skype only, and select the team!
Recently, During his interview to one of the most news paper of Sri Lanka, Labrooy mentioned top five Under 19 players name, who could be next big thing for the national team. He mentioned allrounder Jehan Daniel, Kamindu Mendis, but The name of Hasitha Boyagoda was not there. Every Cricket fan of Sri Lanka knows and admits it that Boyagoda is the best under 19 batsman of the country, but Sadly the Chief Selector himself doesn’t know this!
Sumathipala led SLC always advertise and self claims that the board has become financially stable. In this scenario, if it is true, the board need to appoint a full time chief selector. The multitasking Labrooy is not suitable for the job, who went to New Zealand as a match referee during the Under 19 world cup, only because his relative is studying there!
