Sa'adi Thawfeeq: Skandakumar - new Chairman of Selectors? (31 Mar 1997)

31 March 1997

Skandakumar - new Chairman of Selectors?

By SA'ADI THAWFEEQ

Sri Lanka cricket will have a new chairman of selectors to see it through the next 12 months from tomorrow (April 1) after Duleep Mendis was sacked by the Sri Lanka Cricket Board's Executive Committee when it met on Saturday.

Mendis, a former Sri Lanka Test captain, has been the chairman of selectors since December 1, 1994, and his removal from the five-member selection committee comes in the wake of one of Sri Lanka's worst ever Test defeats when they were drubbed 2-0 by New Zealand in the short series.

Cricket Board sources however said Mendis' removal from the selection committee was not in anyway related to the defeats in New Zealand, but purely because the ExCo felt he should not be holding the post when he was a paid employee of the Board.

In January this year, Mendis was appointed manager of the Sri Lanka team till the end of the next World Cup tournament in England in 1999.

Also overlooked from the current selection committee was T.B. Kehelgamuwa, who along with Mendis, Roy Dias, Sidath Wettimuny and Ranjan Madugalle served in the selection panel from a period of nearly two-and-a-half years.

They had a fairly successful run during the period which saw Sri Lanka go on to record Test victories in New Zealand and Pakistan, and culminated in winning the World Cup in March 1996.

The survivors in the new selection panel are Dias, Wettimuny and Madugalle. The newcomers are S. Skandakumar and Jayantha Seneviratne. The names have been sent to the Sports Minister for ratification.

Skandakumar, a former Royal College and Tamil Union cricketer is also a past cricket administrator, having served in the Cricket Board, both as secretary and assistant secretary. He is renowned for his forthrightness and is tipped to head the new-look selection committee.

Seneviratne is a former Nalanda College, Bloomfield and Sri Lanka cricketer, who presently runs a private coaching class.

The new-look selection panel which takes over from April 1, will have its hands full within the next 12 months when Sri Lanka are scheduled to play a minimum of 14 Tests and a surfeit of one-day internationals in addition to picking the sides for the Under 19 and `A' team tours.

The first assignment of the new-look selection committee is to pick the teams for the short series of two Tests against Pakistan at home, beginning mid-April.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)