Friday Dec 19, 2025
Friday Dec 19, 2025
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The present selection panel should continue until at least the end of the T20 World Cup
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Which country tries to change its cricket selection committee and its Chairman just two months ahead of a major showpiece like the ICC T20 World Cup, of which Sri Lanka are co-hosts with India?
Maybe the two-year term of the present selection committee headed by Upul Tharanga has expired this month, but if any of those individuals who are looking to make the changes has some common sense, they should allow the present set of selectors to continue until at least till the end of the T20 World Cup, and do whatever changes they deem necessary, afterwards.
The current selection committee has been choosing players for the past two years and have an idea of what the composition for the T20 World Cup would be. A new committee coming in at this crucial stage will only be groping in the dark for answers, and it could be quite detrimental towards Sri Lanka’s chances of advancing in the World Cup.
The name of Pramodya Wickramasinghe has sprung up once more to take charge of the new selection committee. Everyone knows how Sri Lanka fared during his leadership as Chairman of selectors. He controversially sacked senior players from the national white-ball teams with the intention of grooming youngsters, targeting the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup. However, his move backfired with horrendous performances by the national team on the tours to Bangladesh and England. Sri Lanka’s disastrous showing in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where they failed to make it beyond the group stage, winning just two matches out of nine, and for the first time in their history failing to qualify for an ICC event – the ICC Champions Trophy – was the last straw.
Wickramasinghe’s committee was sacked and replaced by the one headed by Tharanga.
It was the Wickramasinghe committee that appointed Dasun Shanaka as Captain of the white-ball teams (ODIs and T20Is) and he too had to make his exit following the Cricket World Cup debacle. He was replaced in ODIs by Kusal Mendis and in T20Is by Wanindu Hasaranga. Later, Charith Asalanka was given in-charge of both teams and remains Captain till today.
Under Asalanka’s leadership, Sri Lanka made vast strides in ODI cricket, rising from 8th to 4th position in the ICC rankings. It is only in T20Is that the team is still struggling for consistency.
The question that needs to be asked:
Why is Sri Lanka going back to the tested and tried individuals to form the selection committee and its head?
Are we starved of past international cricketers to serve in the panel of selectors?
Is there any reluctance on the part of past players to accept the job of selectors, which is why Sri Lanka Cricket keeps going back to those who have served before and even failed?
Changing the selection committee and its Chairman at this point is not going to win Sri Lanka another World Cup. It is the players who have to rise to the occasion and put things in its proper perspective.
Let saner counsel prevail and decisions be taken with wisdom, not purely for the sake of wanting to make a change and then hoping for the best.
