Friday Dec 26, 2025
Friday Dec 26, 2025
Saturday, 20 December 2025 00:23 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Chairman of cricket selectors Pramodya Wickramasinghe (centre) gestures during the media briefing yesterday along with selection panel members Rasanjali de Alwis, Indika de Saram, Vinothen John and Tharanga Paranavithana
Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Pramodya Wickramasinghe re-installed as chairman of cricket selectors for the second time said that it was at the request of Sri Lanka Cricket and the Minister of Sports that he undertook the role again to serve as chairman of selectors.
“Although I didn’t expect my name to come up it was picked by the membership of Sri Lanka Cricket. When I came to know about it I said to please keep my name out because I was not interested in coming back,” said Wickramasinghe, chairing his first press conference at Sri Lanka Cricket headquarters yesterday.
“However Sri Lanka Cricket and the Sports Minister made a request to me to undertake the chairmanship again. It was at their request that I once again undertook the position as chairman.”
Wickramasinghe was chairman of selectors from 2021-23 but was removed from the position following Sri Lanka’s disastrous showing at the 2023 Cricket World Cup where they won only 2 out of 9 matches and were eliminated from the knockout round and, for the first time in their history, failed to qualify for an ICC event – the Champions Trophy.
“Although I was criticized, I took the risk of bringing in young blood into the national team at the expense of seniors. A good example is Pathum Nissanka how he has risen to become Sri Lanka’s most reliable batsman. Although we lost, I saw with my own eyes the development of the team, but it would take time,” said Wickramasinghe.
“In the 2023 Cricket World Cup we had to fall back again on experience due to injuries to players like Wanindu (Hasaranga) and (Dushmantha) Chameera. Today we have developed into an experienced side. We must now plan how best we can use these players to win matches. When we win only we will go up in our rankings. We have given everything a player requires to perform at the highest level and our next step is to get them to perform using what has been made available to them. In T20 cricket you need young blood, not players you have to hide. If we can produce 3-4 world class players we will definitely start winning.”
“Our short term goal is the T20 World Cup. We have to find our best 15 or 16 players who will represent us in the T20 World Cup and we have only 6 matches to do that. We will take full responsibility along with the High Performance Centre (HPC) and the national team’s support staff if the team fails to perform.” (ST)
