No pressure on selectors to resign - Aravinda [April 07 2011]

By Chris Dhambarage

Outgoing Chairman of Selectors and former Sri Lanka captain Aravinda de Silva believes that Sri Lanka has enough talent and potential to march forward in the international scene despite losing the World Cup final to India recently.

He made these observations today after his committee which also includes Ranjith Fernando, Amal Silva and Shabbir Asgerally resigned on the previous day. De Silva stated that their term was to expire on April 30 but decided to quit much earlier while paving the way for the new selection committee to make some good decisions.

“In view of the fact that some major cricketing decisions have to be taken for the future of Sri Lanka Cricket due to important assignments in the coming months we stepped down immediately so that the new selectors will have an opportunity to make short and long term plans”.

De Silva a member of the 1996 World Cup winning captain also expressed his gratitude to President Mahinda Rajapaksa for giving them a free hand to use their experience and knowledge and for the complete trust reposed on the selection committee.

He also paid tribute to Sri Lanka Cricket for inviting them to play a vital role and for their confidence. “We have always had a good relationship with the cricketers and have been transparent in all our dealing with them”.

He emphasised that their resignation was not due to any kind of pressure but purely for the betterment of the game so that the new selectors will have enough time to select a team for the next assignment.

In fact Sri Lanka’s next series will be against England where they are scheduled to play three Test matches, five One Day Internationals and a Twenty20 international starting next month.

De Silva believe that the cricketers gave more than one hundred percent in the World Cup final although they ended up as the runners up to India. He stretched the fact that the players need to show more determination and be aggressive on the field in their approach to different situations.

De Silva stated that Sri Lanka should take a leaf from the Australian team where every run and every wicket is important and more significantly the will to fight until the very end.

This was lacking among the Sri Lankan players as they surrendered the final meekly when the Indian batsmen were building up match winning partnerships.

De Silva also noted that had the half chances were taken on the field then the final result would have been completely different. He also defended the last minute selection of Suraj Randiv ahead of regular spinner Ajantha Mendis.

De Silva’s opinion was that Randiv’s bowling would have suited the conditions and the wicket which had a little bit of bounce and with the Indian batsmen having struggled against the off spinner in their previous series.

He further noted that the four changes were made in the vital final to counter attack the opposition but the players failed to rise to the occasion.

De Silva was disappointed that skipper Kumar Sangakkara resigned from the captaincy at a crucial stage of his career but hope that the left hander will still contribute to Sri Lanka cricket as a player along with former captain Mahela Jayawardena.

De Silva said that he had not yet decided on his future plans but will consider if he is given an opportunity to serve the selection committee for another term.