In a long overdue move, the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has finally removed controversial national team manager Manuja Kariyapperuma, Cricket Age exclusively learns. Ahead of the Zimbabwe ODI series on home turf, the cricket board is now searching for Kariyapperuma’s replacement.
Cricket Age had time and again highlighted the irresponsible behavior of Kariyapperuma in the dressing room, while highlighting his incompetence in handling manager job. Equally unpopular among players, Kariyapperuma was expected to be removed long time ago, but somehow managed to survive due to the backing of few influential outsiders.
“He has been asked to return to his original position as coordinator at Women’s Cricket. The board ExCo is expected to approve his removal during Friday’s meeting” a top SLC official told Cricket Age.
It has also learnt that at least 7 candidates has already applied for the post. However, for Zimbabwe series, any of the board staff member or employee is likely to be appointed as Interim manager. According to sources, Head of the SLC’s high performance center Jerome Jayaratne (equally incompetent) is the front runner for the task for Zimbabwe series.
On December 11, Cricket Age had published that Kariyapperuma Ignorance towards his responsibility with Women’s side proved fatal and it eventually contributed in Island’s exit from the T20 World Cup 2022 in New Zealand, after in the last week of November International Cricket Council called off Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2021 in Harare due to the introduction of travel restrictions from a number of African countries, including the host country Zimbabwe, following the breakout of a new COVID-19 variant in southern Africa. The decision was taken during the preliminary league phase of the nine-team tournament, that was to decide the final three qualifiers for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, to be played in New Zealand, as well as two additional teams for the next cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship. After the cancellation, the qualifiers were decided according to the team rankings as detailed in the tournament playing conditions.
Therefore, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies progressed to the event in New Zealand and Sri Lanka were out of of the race, as they couldn’t climb up in the Rankings due to no matches in last one and half year!
The teams who have qualified for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 to be held in New Zealand from 4 March to 3 April are Australia, England, India, South Africa, New Zealand (hosts), Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh.
