The plan drafted by former captains – Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Aravinda De Silva will uplift the standards of domestic cricket in Sri Lanka and eventually will help the national team, Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara believes.
Addressing the weekly Cabinet news briefing on Wednesday, Minister Jayasekara admitted that Sri Lanka’s cricket has plunged to the lowest level possible.
“I don’t rush to the extreme and appoint an interim committee for cricket as I believe I can with the assistance of all stakeholders to save cricket with the new plan which prepared by the likes of Mahela and Sanga. I think appointing interim committees at every two or three years not only for cricket but for any other sport in the country is not healthy for any sport. Besides, the International Cricket Council (ICC) does not recognize interim committees,” Minister Jayasekara emphasized.
He said through constitutional reforms at Sri Lanka Cricket, he would take necessary action to reduce the number of votes which has been a main talking point in the recent past.
In September, a panel was appointed by the Ministry of Sports to draw plans to rebuild Sri Lanka Cricket in the next two years. The panel was headed by Hemaka Amarasuriya, a well-known figure in the cricketing and business fraternity and the other members were former captains including Anura Tennakoon, Aravinda de Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Director General at the Institute of Sports Medicine, Lakshman Edirisinghe.
“I want to see it reduced to 75 from the present 140. One of the main weaknesses that has severely affected cricket is the lack of top tier cricket tournaments to prepare national level cricketers. The top level our cricketers participate in competitive level is club cricket. In club cricket, we have no four day competitions. We also don’t have top level cricket competitions in shorter form to prepare cricketers for limited over and 20-20 cricket. Then we must also train our young cricketers to play night test cricket and to play red, white and rose balls. Sri Lanka has failed to produce top level cricketers who can face any team in the world like Mahela and Sangakkara in the last 8 years. We also have not produced spin bowlers with the calibre of Muralitharan except Rangana Herath or a fast bowler like Chaminda Vaas or a fast bowler who can reach 150 kilometres per hour. These mistakes or lapses have affected Sri Lanka cricket badly and results are that we get beaten badly at international level. That is why the new plan and I believe we can deliver with that plan,” Minister Jayasekara stressed.
