A disagreement between the National Selection Committee (NSC) members and some Influential former players over Pramodaya Wickramasinghe’s appointment as chief selector has forced concerned authorities to put the announcement of the new committee on hold, Cricket Age reliably learns.
According to the sources, Pramodaya was certain to be appointed as chairman of selectors, while former opening batsman Brendon Kuruppu and former ‘A’ team coach Hemantha Devapriya were expected to be named as members of the selection panel.
However, the majority of NSC members have continuely been strongly opposing Pramodaya’s appointment, stating that based on their evaluation, they feels that he doesn’t deserve to lead the committee.
“NSC members recommended Kapila Wijegoonawardene as chairman of selectors, while discarding Pramodaya. It caused an embarrassment to those, who are promoting Pramodaya, in order to taking control over national squads selection” an insider at NSC told Cricket Age.
Currently, Pramodaya and Chaminda Mendis serve the national selection panel after Ashanta de Mel stepped down from the post following the series defeat to England. It’s been almost two months now, but still the concerned authorities are not able to appoint the new selection committee.
“As NSC stand firm on its decision, Now it has been put on hold for sometime” the insider added.
The ongoing tussle has dented Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa’s Image as well. He sits along with Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara and claims to change the Sri Lanka cricket! However, they are not able to appoint a selection committee even!
“Honorable Minister wants to make an impact. But, it seems that some people are taking him for a ride. Those people claims to bring change. However, looks like they just wants to bring their loyals into the setup, so they can control and manipulate things” a Sri Lankan Cricket expert told Cricket Age.
