Taking note of exclusive reports by Cricket Age on the unjustified removal of Ranjith Madurasinghe, the former Right-Arm Off Spin Bowler has been recalled to the national selection committee. Along with Madurasinghe, Hemantha Devapriya was also added.
Following his removal from the Pramodya Wickramasinghe led committee, in a series of stories in April, Cricket Age had exposed that how Madurasinghe, who over the years nurtured more than a dozen of next generation players for Sri Lanka, was coordinating youth selectors and school selection coordinators, who were working in groups Island wide. Along with Tim Maccasil, head of National Cricket Development, Madurasinghe and his colleagues had already conducted more than 50 talent profiling sessions to identify U19 players. Cricket Age had highlighted that his removal has made the much talked about Youth program meaningless.
After Cricket Age highlighted the consequences of his removal, the higher authorities had started blaming each other for the perfect mess. Following were the statement of members/insiders of the higher authorities:
National Sports Council: His name was not sent by the SLC.
National Selection Committee: We asked for the more names multiple times from the SLC, but his name was not there in the proposed candidates.
Technical advisory Committee: His name was not sent by the SLC.
SLC: How it’s possible that we wouldn’t send his name, when we appointed him chairman of youth selection committee few months ago and asked him to work on youth program along with Tim Maccasil. His name was there in the every list we sent for approvals.
Madurasinghe, without a doubt, has been the best youth selector in last one decade. When Graeme Labrrooy, Asantha De Mel and all others came and became political dummies, it was Madurasinghe, who nurtured entire next generation of players for the Island- Ashen Bandara, Pathum Nissanka (Two Young batting prodigies who proved their mettle in recently concluded West Indies tour), Hasitha Boyagoda, Nipun Ransika, Shammu Ashan, Charith Asalanka and many more. Unlike others, Madurasinghe is known for work with vision and planning!
Other members of the Pramodaya led committee are: Romesh Kaluwitharana, Hemantha Wickramaratne, Varuna Waragoda, Uvaisul Karnain and B.A. Thilaka Nilmini Gunaratne.
