Sri Lanka Legend Mahela Jayawardene has once again dragged himself into a “conflict of interest” debate after being appointed as Consultant Coach of all national teams on Monday. A multitasking former cricketer, Mahela has currently been serving as Country’s National Sports Council and Sinhlease Sports Club (SSC) cricket committee chairman.
Mahela, who played all his cricket for SSC, was elected as the Cricket cricket committee chairman replacing Samantha Dodenwela. Since then, all the coaches, selectors were exported by the SSC to the national setup. Vice versa, all top domestic players from the other clubs were poached by the SSC. That time also, questions were raised against Mahela’s conflict of interest act. Even then, he never bothered to resign from any of the post.
However, as now he has taken another post, this time as consultant coach of all the national sides, many in Sri Lanka Cricket circuit feels it’s an unethical scenario, if he still remains on other posts, especially at SSC.
“Now, he is the Consultant Coach of the national teams. In this scenario, he can’t hold a position in a domestic club” a former SLC administrator told Cricket Age.
As Per SLC Constitution, a member of elected board can hold a position at club’s as well. However, other beneficiaries don’t fall in this criteria.
“Well, he will be officially associated with the SLC now, so he can’t hold a position in any of the club. It’s as simple as that” former administrator added.
“If he remains at SSC, there will always be questions, whenever a player from the club will be picked for national duty” former administrator added further.
In his new role which is effective for a period of one year, the Mumbai Indians coach Jayawardene will be in charge of the overall cricketing matters of the national teams and will provide strategic support to the players and management teams at the High-Performance Center.
Jayawardene will also continue the role of mentor and consultant for the U-19 team.
