Wednesday Oct 29, 2025
Wednesday Oct 29, 2025
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.Chief Cricket Selector Upul Tharanga (left) and Head Coach Sanath Jayasuriya
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
The present cricket selection committee’s two-year term comes to an end in December and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is in the process of notifying its stakeholders to nominate names to be included in the next selection panel.
Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva said that it was the normal process that takes place whenever the term of a selection committee reaches its end.
The present selection committee headed by former Sri Lanka opening batsman Upul Tharanga and comprising former national players Ajantha Mendis, Tharanga Paranavithana, Indika de Saram and Dilruwan Perera was appointed in December 2023, following Sri Lanka’s disastrous showing in the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup where they finished second from the bottom of the table with 2 wins and 7 losses and failed to qualify for a place in the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time in their history.
Perera stepped down from the selection committee after serving it for one year to take up the role of Youth Spin Bowling Coach of Sri Lanka Cricket reducing the panel to four members.
De Silva said that a period of two weeks will be granted to the stakeholders to nominate a person of their choice and submit the names to SLC’s Executive Committee. The ExCo would then review the candidates and send 10 suitable names from the list to the Minister of Sports who will then nominate the new selection panel, if not retain the same selectors as the case maybe.
Since Tharanga’s committee took over and the subsequent appointment of his former opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya as the Head Coach of the national team, Sri Lanka’s cricketing stocks have shown a significant improvement in Tests and ODIs. In Tests they are currently ranked 6th and 4th in ODIs. It is only in the T20I format that they lag behind in 8th position. In the ICC World Test Championship (2025-27) Sri Lanka currently holds second position to Australia having been in line for a place in the final in the previous cycle (2023-25) before ending up sixth.
Under the Tharanga-led selection committee Sri Lanka’s has had a decent run so far winning 50 percent of their matches in Tests (P14, W7, L6, D1), 68 percent success in ODIs (P25, W17, L6, NR2) and 45.45 percent in T20Is (P33, W15, L17, NR1).
No matter how good the record of the national selectors and coaches are, the performance of the national team eventually boils down to how they performed in the World Cup or the Asia Cup – two tournaments where Sri Lanka failed to make it to the knockout stage.
At least the Tharanga-Jayasuriya combination brought back the smiles to the faces of the cricket fans who at one time shunned the game due to the poor performance of the national team.
In all probability it will be a new selection panel (perhaps with some members of the present selection panel retained) that will be picking the Sri Lanka squad for the next ICC T20 World Cup which will be hosted by India and Sri Lanka from 7 February to 8 March.
At the end of the T20 World Cup the performance of National Head Coach Sanath Jayasuriya will also come up for review as his contract with SLC expires with the completion of the tournament. He was appointed from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2026.
