Sri Lanka's selectors rewarded with second term

Ashantha de Mel has been retained as Sri Lanka's chairman of selectors for a second year. The other six members of the seven-man committee will also be reappointed for another year, according to Jeewan Kumaratunga, Sri Lanka's sports minister.

Sri Lanka's selectors are appointed by the government and Kumaratunga has announced himself satisfied with their performance during the year. "They have been doing well and I don't see any reason to make any changes," Kumaratunga told the state-run Daily News. "They would be retained for another term."

However, the past year was not without selection controversy, the most serious being the open disagreement and friction between Marvan Atapattu, the captain, and De Mel over the selections for the Pakistan Test series last November. However, Atapattu and de Mel, publicly at least, patched up their relationship afterwards.

But while de Mel's shock decision to summarily axe Tillakaratne Dilshan for that tour - justified because he wanted to force the management to blood a player - was widely criticised and later reversed, his refusal to bow to pressure from top officials over a possible recall for Hashan Tillakaratne and the vice-captaincy issue also won him respect.

Kumaratunga's decision not to reduce the size of the panel, which was increased from the normal four to seven last year after the government's nominations were not enthusiastically endorsed by the cricket board, will not please those, including the team management, who have argued the case for a slimmed down version.

Selection panel Ashantha De Mel, Shabbir Asgerally, KM Nelson, Lalith Kaluperuma, Don Anurasiri, Pramodya Wickramasinghe, Ranjith Madurasinghe.