Legendary Sanath Jayasuriya led technical committee, which is probing Sri Lanka’s direct ODI World Cup qualification failure, Tuesday met Cricket Board’s officials and coaching staff, Cricket Age Exclusively learns.
Last month, Sri Lanka’s sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe appointed a technical committee headed by Jayasuriya to probe the reasons behind national team’s failure to win direct qualification for the ODI World Cup to be held in India later this year.
Sri Lanka, twice finalists in addition to the 1996 win, has played every World Cup since 1975. This will be the first time they will be playing in a qualifying round.
“Mr. Jayasuriya, Charith Senanayake and Farveez Maharoof from the technical committee met Board President Shammi Silva, so called consultant coach Mahela Jayawardene, Chief Selector Pramodaya Wickramasinghe and hìs colleagues, CEO Ashley De Silva and High Performance Centre head Tim Maccasil. The meeting went very well, with SLC also supported” a source told Cricket Age.
Sri Lanka’s chances for automatic qualification disappeared when they lost the three-ODI series 0-2 to New Zealand last month. The loss meant Sri Lanka failed to move up to the eighth spot in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League table. Seven teams have already secured their spots in the tournament.
Sri Lanka will now play in the qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe between June 18 and July 9. There are only two places for the qualifying teams in the final round. Sri Lanka will be fighting for a slot alongside Zimbabwe and West Indies and also with either South Africa or Ireland.
