Sri Lanka Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe is mysteriously holding back Technical Committee’s recommendations related to national cricket team’s coaching overhaul even after receiving it almost a month ago, Cricket Age exclusively learns.
In April, Ranasinghe had appointed a technical committee headed by the legendary Sanath Jayasuriya to probe the reasons behind Sri Lanka’s failure to win direct qualification for the ODI World Cup to be held in India later this year. Sri Lanka will now play in the qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe between June 18 and July 9.
According to sources, the technical committee had submitted it’s recommendations to Ranasinghe on May 7th Itself. However, even till now, Minister has not sent any directive to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) based on the recommendations.
Cricket Age understands that the Technical Committee, in it’s recommendations, has advised Minister to refrain from any overnight overhaul – like changing coaching staff or selectors – considering the fact that Sri Lanka will have to play qualifiers to secure a place in 50 Overs World Cup.
However, the technical committee has advised that Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka’s so called Consultant Coach at present, must be made accountable for team’s performance, especially when he enjoys dominant hand in team’s selection and strategic decisions.
“If Mr. Jayawardene enjoys that much dominance in everything, let him handle the Sri Lanka team on his own. However, at the same time, he must also take responsibility for team’s performance” Technical Committee’s recommendations says.
Mahela was seen in Hambantota earlier this week with Sri Lanka team during preparation for the ongoing Afghanistan ODI series, after finishing his IPL assignment.
In the first ODI yesterday, Afghanistan, sans premier spinner Rashid Khan, comfortably defeated Sri Lanka by 6 wickets!
