“You’ve got to have the right people as selectors”: Aravinda

Cricket Committee Chairman Aravinda de Silva

Aravinda de Silva is once again back in the limelight. Having served his country as an outstanding cricketer by helping them to win their first and only 50-over Cricket World Cup and by serving in various other administrative capacities, the last as Chairman of cricket selectors, he is today the Chairman of the Cricket Committee appointed by Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa to uplift Sri Lanka cricket from the depths it has fallen to. 

Besides de Silva, the high-powered cricket committee comprises the world’s leading Test and ODI wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan and former Sri Lanka Captains Roshan Mahanama and Kumar Sangakkara.

De Silva took time from his tight schedule to answer a few pertinent questions from Daily FT on Sri Lanka cricket and how his committee plans to go about resolving it. 

Following are excerpts:

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Q: What made you return to serve cricket again and undertake the Cricket Committee Chairmanship?

 The reason was that when the request came, and considering the current situation the players are faced with, and the way the game is progressing, we thought ‘let us try and get together and do whatever we can to help these cricketers’. Cricket has given us everything so it is our duty to give back something. Whenever I’ve been called upon I have tried my best and I have managed to get little, little things done because it is very hard to make huge changes but over the years maybe little, little things have been done. So let us see this time at least with more authority we will be able to implement more things for the betterment of the game.

Q:  Where did the request come from?

 It came from the Sports Minister; he is the one who appointed us. He spoke to a few other cricketers and me and wanted us to decide on a committee and work together. The committee was decided collectively, the names came up and that’s how they decided on the committee.

Q:  From your personal point of view what is wrong with Sri Lanka cricket and what do you need to fix it?

 You can’t expect miracles. You’ve got to work out like in any business or any institution to succeed what needs to be fixed immediately and what requirements for the midterm and for sustainability of the long term. Those are the three areas that we will focus on mainly to look at immediate, midterm and long term requirements and, then work on areas of what is already in place and to bring what is the best practices we should implement towards improving the game and its sustainability.

Q:  What do you see is actually wrong?

 There might be so many reasons. One area we need to really go deep and see is what has been happening in the last few months and also what needs to be done to rectify the situation. I feel that there has to be some sort of discipline instilled and also have some strong personalities who understand the culture, the system and all that, to be installed at a high level. 

We are only a committee and we will be making only suggestions; in the thick of things someone will have to guide and do a lot of work within and that personality has to be someone very strong and one who works with a lot of understanding with the areas of knowledge of the players. 

Selection is an important area so we’ve got to get the right people because it is a very crucial position. Understanding the players, the strategy, the conditions, the combinations, long term when you are playing international cricket those are important things to understand from a selector’s point of view. Also to understand the character and the strengths and weaknesses of the team, one who can really drive the information down to the low levels to make sure that we have the right people developing the cricketers to fulfil those areas. 

Long term we need to develop the grassroots levels. The Schools’ Cricket Association should work closely with Sri Lanka Cricket so that from school level itself once you identify you can create the pathway for cricketers to come through the system and not miss out. There are about 28,000 to 30,000 cricketers playing cricket from about Under-13 level but when it comes to Under-19 it is down to about 6,000 cricketers – there’s a huge drop. There may be so many reasons we’ve got to understand. I can think of some like education and career security are probably the reasons. What we need to do is to try and have systems to support those requirements and get these players to continue. 

Knowing school cricket, there are a lot of players who are unfortunate when it comes to selection while playing for their own school because we see a lot of parents getting involved in various operations to support the school and thereby not allowing the school coaches and authorities to try and give the opportunity to the right players. Sometimes we see a lot of them being left out and they miss out. Those players must be given an opportunity to come through and show their talent. For that we need to look at a youth development structure through provincial level to come through the clubs. Those are the areas we need to target. And of course, a strong first-class tournament, being more competitive, because even in a situation like today circumstances are such that even the way we play cricket will change. 

For at least another year or two maybe we’ve got to face these challenges and understand what we need to do the changes. If we had a strong domestic structure even preparation for some of these tours could be done domestically rather than depending only on international cricket. Sometimes it is a blessing in disguise for things like this to happen even for the businesses it’s the same. I take this as an opportunity to get things done for the better.

Q:  Has COVID-19 anything to do with the performances of the national team?

You can’t be complaining because everyone is faced with this situation, not only Sri Lanka. Previously you can say that during the war we were handicapped, but here it is not only Sri Lanka – if the others can do it, why can’t we? This is what should be the attitude. No point in trying to find excuses; you’ve got to find what the solutions are, get the positive side of things rather than the negative.

Q:  How long do you think it will take for your committee to put things right?

 We’ll try get these things moving as soon as possible; that will be our aim. There will be practical issues in implementing certain things so we have to look at doing them by talking, discussing and do the best for cricket as a joint thing and make sure that we all work together towards one goal.

Q:  What should priority be given to?

 Obviously priority has to be given to the national team’s potential requirements, whatever at the highest level that needs to be done that’s current and its short-term, performance and all that is important. 

Whilst we do that we need to get a fair bit of input and develop the Under-19 which is important. We need to have some strong modern-thinking people because that’s where the grounding is done. That is the key for the long-term. There is an Under-19 World Cup and a T20 World Cup coming so those are the mid-terms we need to plan for.

Q:  Has your committee met and how often will they meet?

 We have met once. We have to set our communication lines and all that so hopefully on Monday would be the time to target to get things started. We need to get some details from Sri Lanka Cricket which we have requested. Once we have those then we can work on what needs to be done. We will be meeting once a month.