Chandika Hathurusingha, the high profile Coach of Sri Lanka team, has reportedly abused selector Hemantha Wickramaratne when he tried to give his input in finalizing the playing eleven for the recently concluded first test, Cricket Age reliably learns.
Sri Lanka is currently in Australia, involving in two match test series. The team lost the first test inside three days by an innings and 40 runs. Except for Niroshan Dickwella, no other batsman could manage a fifty-plus score.
According to well placed sources in team management, Hemantha Wickramaratne, the selector on tour, tried to be involved in the selection process before the first test. However, Hathurusingha, who becomes a selector on tour as per former SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala modified constitution, bluntly told Wickramaratne that he has the authority to pick playing eleven, so he doesn’t need anyone suggestion.
It is noteworthy that lot of technical and selection blunders caused Sri Lanka a humiliating defeat against Australia. In last two years, Kusal Perera has emerged as Sri Lanka’s best shorter formats batsman. Even then, he could not find a place in the team. More surprisingly, Dinesh Chandimal, the captain of the team, came to bat at number three and failed miserably with five runs in two innings.
Cricket Age learns that after the heated argument between Hathurusingha and Wickramaratne, the SLC has already removed the coach as one of the selector!
On January 16, Cricket Age had exposed how Hathurasingha charged a whopping 60,000 USD from the SLC for just an assessment report of the national team. More shockingly, as per his contract, Hathurusingha is entitled to get 1,20,000 USD in a year for submitting two reports!
On January 26, Cricket Age had published that Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors Asantha De Mel, along with his fellow selectors Brendon Kurruppu and Chaminda Mendis, went to meet Sports Minister Harin Fernando on Thursday and complained about Hathurusingha’s dictatorship and made it clear that it has become difficult for them to work with the coach!
