Now, it has become a known fact that At Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) not only the selection committee, but all the top officials also interfere in the team selections, be it for national team or domestic tournaments. SLC Notorious Treasurer Shammi Silva interference is well known in Sri Lanka cricket circuit. Another Top Official is Vice President K. Mathivanan, who has become famous for obliging one of his favorite ‘Family Friend’ Sons, that too without any performance behind them.
In a latest episode of his interference in team selection, it has learnt that Mathivanan pressurized on One of the selector to drop a deserving player from one of the squad for the upcoming Super Provincial 50 over tournament, only because the player once dropped his favorite player from the Club Team Playing XI. The most surprising thing is, other selectors doesn’t know anything about this conspiracy.
The player name is Alankara Asanka, who plays for Badureliya Club and also is the captain of the side. Asanka, 33, is an Off Spin Allrounder and his statistics Proves his Worth, especially in shorter formats. This season alone, he picked 45 Wickets in Three-Day Matches, 7 wickets in 9 ODI matches and 10 Wickets in 4 T20 Matches. Apart from this, he is a more than decent batsman lower down the order.
However, he couldn’t find a place in the any of the squad for the upcoming Super Provincial tournament and reason is non-Cricketing.
According to sources, as a captain of the Badureliya, this season, he dropped a young Left Arm Spinner Duvindu Sachin Tillakaratne from the team after few matches, due to poor performance in earlier matches.
Duvindu is the son of former Sri Lanka Captain Hasan Tillakaratne. Even though he performed reasonably well last season, this year his performance has largely been sporadic. That’s why, for the sake of the team, Asanka dropped him from the team.
However, The Tillakaratne Family is very close to SLC Controversial Vice President K. Mathivanan. Thus, Getting upset by Asanka, Mathivanan Pressurized on one of his close selector to not include him in any of the squad.
This is not the first time Mathivanan Unethically favoured his favorites. In the Panadura-Kalutara match fixing, he saved Ravin Wickramaratne and Co when he was the incharge of domestic cricket. Few Months ago, he punished two umpires and barred them from umpiring in domestic matches, only because they complained against the rude behavior of his favorite Chandrika Rodrigo during a domestic match between Ragama and Saresans.
