Ashantha de Mel to head selection panel

Sri Lanka Cricket announced on Friday that Ashantha de Mel, a former fast bowler and selector, would head a new, bloated seven-man selection panel during the coming year. Lalith Kaluperuma, the previous chairman, is the only selector retained in the new panel, which will now sit down to pick Sri Lanka's squad for the forthcoming tour of Australia.

The size of the panel was increased from four to seven after the government, which retains responsibility under the sports law for the appointment of selectors, rejected a Sri Lanka Cricket-proposed committee.

This delayed the announcement of a fresh panel after the previous committee had completed its tenure on April 30. But a compromise agreement was reached by the inclusion of both the board and government's choices. Aravinda de Silva, the current vice-president of Sri Lanka Cricket and an influential selector during the past year, made himself unavailable for the new committee.

Ashantha De Mel
Shabbir Asgerally
KM Nelson
Lalith Kaluperuma
Don Anurasiri
Promodya Wickramasinghe
Ranjith Madurasinghe