Selectors will sit soon to pick captain and pools (17 June 1999)

17 June 1999

Selectors will sit soon to pick captain and pools

Dinesh Weerawansa

Former BCCSL Secretary and member of the Interim Body to govern the Cricket Board affairs, S. Skandakumar will represent Sri Lanka at the ICC Annual General Meeting to be held at Lord's next month, Sri Lanka's new cricket chief Rienzie Wijetillake confirmed.

Speaking to the 'Daily News', Interim Cricket Body chairman, Wijetillake said they have officially informed the International Cricket Council that Skandakumar will represent Sri Lanka at the annual ICC sessions. Wijetillake added that the BCCSL Chief Executive Dhammika Ranatunga, who is already in England, will be associated with Skandakumar.

Asked about the selection of Sri Lanka pool and captain for the home series against Australia and the Sri Lanka 'A' team for the tour of England this summer, Wijetillake said that the new selection committee will meet shortly to finalise the two pools. He added that the new selectors will keep a close eye on the performance of national level cricketers in the current Premier League inter-club tournament which will also serve as a trial.

Meanwhile, the matches of the inter-club Premier League's third postponed weekend of three-day matches will commence tomorrow. This weekend's matches will enable the new selectors Sidat Wettimuny (chairman), Asantha de Mel, Brendon Kuruppu and T.B.Kehelgamuwa to have a close look at the cricketers for the first time since their appointment to the new selection committee.

Several major changes are expected to take place in the national team after Sri Lanka team's humiliating first round exit from the World Cup tournament.

The new selectors will undoubtedly give priority to young talent as an investment for the future. Avishka Gunawardena, Russel Arnold, Prasanna Jayawardena, Pradeep Hewage, Suresh Perera and Ruchira Parera are some of the impressive cricketers who are set to catch the eyes of the selectors.

Gunawardena, Arnold and Perera have already represented the national team though they failed to make it to the World Cup squad as the previous selection committee relied on experience.

With the cry for youth to be given a break at national level, Wettimuny and his highly experienced set of selectors will do well to include promising young cricketers like Hewage and Jayawardena who were adjudged the best batsman and the best wicket-keeper at the last Youth World Cup tournament in South Africa.

Wicket-keeper batsman Jayawardena could easily be groomed as a future Sri Lanka wicket-keeper while NCC's Pradeep Hewage has all the credentials to be a solid opening batsman.

Hewage has surprisingly been excluded from the Sri Lanka 'A' pool. Hewage gave a fine account of his talent when he cracked twin centuries (168 and 123) for NCC in the Premier League last weekend. He was in sparkling form. Hewage who made a big impact when he captained the Sri Lanka Youth team for the World Cup last year and those who saw in action during the tournament were surprised to see that he was not included in the national team which toured South Africa later under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga.

Similarly, there are several other deserving youth who have failed to make it to the national and youth teams in recent past, despite their consistent form at domestic level.

Wettimuny and his team are sure to evaluate all these performances and make the perfect selections when they sit for the first time. Their initial task would be to prune down the current Sri Lanka 'A' pool and name a 16-member tour squad. They are also expected to name a Sri Lanka national pool of which the final 15 members will be picked for the Triangular home series which also feature India and Australia from August 22 to 31.

Source :: The Daily News