The Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) on Thursday decided to persist with national team’s head coach Chandika Hathurasingha for the world cup amidst all the controversies surrounding him, Cricket Age reliably learns.
The Mega event will be held in England and Wales from May 30 to July 14, 2019. featuring ten teams.
Last week, after another 5-0 drubbing against South Africa in the ODI series, SLC had summoned Hathurusingha to return to Sri Lanka with immediate effect.
On Thursday, Hathurusingha met SLC President Shammi Silva and other top officials. After meeting Shammi Silva and his team came to the conclusion that even though Hathurusingha has turned out a white elephant for Sri Lanka cricket, this is not the right time to remove him as world cup is just around the corner.
“After the meeting with Hathurusingha, the honorable President Mr. Shammi Silva decided against the removal, as he felt it is not the right time to take the extreme step” a top SLC official told Cricket Age.
More importantly, Cricket Age learns that as there is no exit clause in Hathurusingha’s contract, SLC found it rather difficult to remove him midway through his tenure.
“As there is no exit clause in his contract, if SLC removes Hathurusingha, the board will have to pay him compensation, which will cost SLC millions of rupees” the top official added further.
However, during the meeting, SLC made it clear that Hathurusingha needs to change his attitude towards the certain players, team staff, selectors and even SLC.
Hired by Former SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala in December 2017, Hathurusingha has been turned out a complete disaster for Sri Lanka cricket, when he was expected to uplift the standard of the team. In his tenure, Sri Lanka has become a laughing stock in shorter format cricket and right now is placed well below Afghanistan and Bangladesh. More importantly, his own behavior and arrogance with SLC officials, selection committee have irked everyone in Sri Lanka cricket.
More importantly, under his wings, the team is completely divided at least in four camps. Few weeks ago, allrounder Thisara Perera’s leaked letter to SLC CEO Ashley De Silva had proved that Hathurusingha has failed miserably to keep the unity amongst the players.
