De Mel reappointed Sri Lanka chief selector
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)—Former test bowler Ashantha de Mel was reappointed as Sri Lanka’s chief selector on Thursday, 19 months after he was sacked amid accusations of inefficiency, favoritism and political bias.
Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage also named former internationals Amal Silva, Hemantha Wickramaratne and Don Anurasiri as members of the panel, the ministry said in a statement.
The previous selection committee headed by former captain and administrator Duleep Mendis resigned.
A former sports minister sacked de Mel in May 2010, just nine months before a World Cup to enable a new selection committee under former star Aravinda de Silva to build a team for the tournament. Sri Lanka reached the final and lost to India.
The Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Thursday that also in line to lose their jobs were captain Tillakaratne Dilshan and Australian coach Geoff Marsh, who took up his position just over three months ago. His two-year contract is due to expire in September 2013.
Sri Lanka is in South Africa, where it lost the test series 2-1 and trails in the one-day series 3-0.
Source: Associated Press
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Was this man sacked due to political bias and meddling or due to real reasons of inefficiencey, poor judgement etc? Under Aravinda, the team he selected for the World Cup played magnificently. But at the final, political interference led to drastic team changes, which resulted in our defeat to our shame and disappointment, when we could surely have won the cup, since we had earlier defeated the Indian team. Was the Indian team allowed to win by a political big wig in order to please the Indians, who had placed huge bets? This shows how much our politicians really care about honour and glory of SL! They are prepared to sell our Motherland. Politicans of whatever shade, ultimately only pay lip-service to the greater good of Motherlanka. They only care about increasing their wealth and the betterment of their quality of life! Is this the Idiri Dekma?
ND, I can’t agree with you more. This is a disaster. Another act of nepotism.
Dear Ashantha,
Forget the Past,forget the word ” sacked”.You are now given the Rule and the whip.Handle it for the betterment of the game and the country.The world will be watching you closely for a successful future.We will burn our midnight oil to see our boys restore our lost Glory.
We had an excellent team under captaincy of Sangakkara. But politcal interference resulted in demoralising the team. Political interference also resulted in financial mismanagement which led to players being unpaid for several months. This led to further demoralising. New chief selector can do little, if he and the team are mere puppets-on-a-string controlled by political bigwigs. I am very sad for our boys, who played their heart out to bring honour to Motherlanka, at the world cup finals. They have been cheated, the Nation has been cheated, by these wicked political bigwigs, whose bank accounts grew fatter as a result!