The Sports Ministry Friday released more information about the meeting held between Sri Lanka Cricket officials and Sports officials regarding the current status of Cricket in Sri Lanka, which took place on 27th of January 2021. The following suggestions were mutually agreed upon by all present
- Re-consider the current selection committee and nominate an alternative list of selectors.
- Consider to re-organize the current first-class tournament structure to continue with minimum of 8 and maximum of 14 tier one teams, where Tier-1 will be considered as first class and Tier-2 will have no first-class
- Organize new super provincial tournament with 5 teams and cluster all the premier Tier 1 and Tier 2 clubs and divisional
- Identification of highly capable and qualified personnel to be appointed to the national team as
- Team Mentor
- Director Cricket
- Full time team manager
- Re-consider the existing contractual agreements and incentive scheme with regard to players and Coaches, in order to ensure that it encompasses an incentive structure based on both team and individual performance as well as consistency and
- The management of Sri Lanka Cricket should develop a mechanism to monitor and enforce discipline along with physical fitness among players and other contracted
- It was further recommended to appoint an active and capable cricket committee under Sri Lanka Cricket to implement & oversee both the national (local) and international cricketing
A timeline for implementation was also decided and agreed upon at the above meeting, in order to ensure that the new goal-oriented plan was followed up and implemented as discussed.
It was agreed to implement all of the deliberations of the discussion on or before the 1st of March 2021.
In addition, appointment of a special committee to develop cricket in Sri Lanka was also discussed at the meeting. Accordingly, Cricket Age understands that a five member committee would be appointed for the task, comprising of some former players and They will be given responsibility to identify and execute a program to develop cricket in Sri Lanka.
However, it remains to be seen whether Mahela and Sangakkara, the latest flag-bearer of these revamp proposals, along with former spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will accept the responsibility on their own shoulders or will be disappeared after making the noise, as all are having lucrative million dollars IPL contracts. At present, Mahela is the head coach of IPL team Mumbai Indians, while Sangakkara recently grabbed another IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals mentor role, after staring at the rich t20 league for years. Murali, meanwhile, has also been associated with another IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad. Thus, next month, all three are expected to fly India for their IPL commitments.
