Sri Lankan president orders inquiry into Jayasuriya's axing

Injury and poor form saw Sanath Jayasuriya dropped from the Test side © Getty Images

Mahinda Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan president, has ordered an inquiry into Sanath Jayasuriya's axing from the Test squad for the ongoing three-match series in India.

"There were many requests for an investigation over the selections and I have asked sports minister Jeevan Kumaratunga to look into the matter," said Rajapakse. Saman Amarasinghe, a former umpire and currently the chairman of the sports council, was assigned to conduct the inquiry.

Jayasuriya, 36, a veteran of 100 Tests, was dropped after Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating 6-1 loss in a recent one-day series in India. He had problems with both form and fitness and could manage just 85 runs in six outings. "I have asked to investigate why Jayasuriya was overlooked for the Tests in India," said Rajapakse. "Why did they select him for the one-day series if he was not fully fit ?"

Jayasuriya, who has 6,580 Test runs and 10,207 runs in one-day internationals, aggravated a shoulder injury just before the one-dayers in India. But his omission from the Test squad created a stir in Sri Lanka with former players and enthusiasts arguing that Jayasuriya had recovered sufficiently from the injury and should have been picked for the Tests.

The first Test between India and Sri Lanka at Chennai has seen the first two days washed out due to a cyclone sweeping through the region.