Asanka Gurusinha, former batsman and member of the 1996 world cup winning team, has panicked big time as the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) has indicated to not to renew his contract as Chief Cricket Operations officer. Gurusinha’s matter will officially be discussed during today’s ExCo meeting, Cricket Age reliably learns.
Gurusinha’s, who is overseeing SLC’s high performance unit (HPC) and brain centre operations and well as international and women’s cricket affairs since April 2018, contract ended on August 14 and board top administrators are on the opinion to not extend it.
“Gurusinha has failed miserably to contribute to Sri Lanka cricket in any of his capacity. Therefore, there is no reason to continue with him, especially when we are going to overhaul entire coaching staff” a senior SLC administrator told Cricket Age.
Dave Whatmore, former Sri Lanka Coach and a possible replacement of Gurusinha, is already in Sri Lanka and has met few Top Officials of SLC.
“Even after knowing that Gurusinha’s contract would be ended on 14 August, the board didn’t renew it. it shows that his tenure is over” the senior administrator added further.
Cricket Age learns that after realizing that his contract won’t be renewed, Gurusinha has put all the blame on high performance coaches at Khetterama, by stating that they complained about him to SLC.
Despite being brought in a managerial capacity initially, Gurusinha had seen his responsibilities grow from being part of the selection committee to having a more hands-on approach in team affairs.
After St. Lucia incident in June 2018, Gurusinha relinquished his international duties as team manager and took over as Chief Cricket operations officer.
According to sources, during Gurusinha’s tenure at Khetterama, high performance centre hit a new low, as he failed miserably to identify coaches talent and strengths!
“His responsibility was to assigning and supervising all the High performance coaches at HPC. However, majority of coaches were not happy with him” a HPC coach told Cricket Age in term of anonymity.
More than his failure to deliver results, however, it’s Gurusinha’s dictatorship that will cost him his job.
“He likes to dictate terms and doesn’t listen to others. That’s why, HPC turned a white elephant for Sri Lanka cricket under his supervision” the HPC coach added further.
However, Gurusinha still has faith in Sri Lanka Cricket’s supreme judiciary (Punchi Borella) and is still hopeful that the supreme judge Thilanga Sumathipala will save his job. Sumathipala will also take part at today’s ExCo as immediate past President!!
