Most people miss Kumar Sangakkara’s batting. The press miss his media briefings. Sanga once said that the selectors were like God moving about in mysterious ways. He was having a go at Sir Richard Hadlee, who had controversially left him out and picked compatriot Brendon McCullum for the Super Test against Australia in Sydney (2005).
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If you are into reading autobiographies of cricketers, you would be familiar with some of the infamous spats between players and selectors. In Sri Lanka, of course, there’s not much written about these off field battles because our blokes are not into the habit of writing autobiographies. ‘Retired Hurt ‘of course is an exception, a story well told by Roshan Mahanama. Earmarked to take over the reins from Arjuna Ranatunga, Mahanama sadly never played beyond the age of 32!
The divisions at times have been pretty deep that the grudges go on for ages and people refuse to talk to each other even after retirement. They even give each other the cold shoulder at social gatherings.
Someone with whom most players had an axe to grind was Abu Fuard. The stalwart of Sri Lankan cricket in 1980s, Fuard ran cricket with an iron fist. Bandula Warnapura in our Legends segment says that a prominent cricket figure in the 1980s was a great friend but a bad enemy. He may have been pointing fingers at Fuard. Many were the players who learned harsh lessons from Fuard.
Amal Silva scored two significant Test hundreds. His first came at Lord’s during Sri Lanka’s inaugural Test match in England in 1984. The second hundred followed a year later when Sri Lanka won their maiden Test match against India at P. Sara Oval. Despite such impressive numbers, he played just a handful of Test matches. You always wonder why.
The reason is that he defied orders. Fuard had clearly told Amal not to play the hook shot as he had a tendency to get out by playing it. He didn’t listen and paid the price. Amal was dropped for the third Test in Karachi during the 1985 tour, paving the way for a certain Asanka Gurusinha to debute as wicketkeeper at the age of 19.
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Sidath Wettimuny was roasted by Tony Greig for his decisions after Sri Lanka defended their World Cup title poorly in 1999. He had kept out some of the stalwarts of the sport and there was huge public opinion against the move. But Sidath did not change his stance and eventually people realized that they were not bad calls after all as it helped identify some younger talents and the seniors bounced back hungrier.
Aravinda de Silva was given a hard time when he split the captaincy in 2003. Everyone expected Marvan Atapattu to take over from Sanath Jayasuriya after the 2003 World Cup. But the Test captaincy was given to Hashan Tillakaratne and Marvan skippered the ODI side. Split captaincy was a new thing those days. But not anymore. At present, you find some teams having three captains for the three versions of the game. Aravinda was ahead of his time and as he has gone onto explain that he did not want to burden Marvan with too much responsibility as he was also the team’s premier batsman in Test cricket. At that point, Sri Lanka were a team in transition.
Marvan often plays with a straight bat and doesn’t hold back anything. He created quite a stir when he called selectors names in Brisbane in 2007. He said that the selectors were a bunch of muppets headed by a joker. All hell broke loose. Having fired the final shot, Marvan announced that the next Test match in Hobart was going to be his swansong.
Marvan’s grouse was that after being picked in the World Cup squad earlier that year, he wasn’t even played in a single game having been made to carry water. His anger is understandable given the fact that it was he who was supposed to lead the side in 2007.
Tilan Samaraweera batted like Don Bradman at SSC. He averaged 77 at his home ground. So, it was bizarre to drop him for the home Test against the Aussies in 2011. He made a comeback in South Africa, made a match winning hundred in Durban and soon after reaching three figures turned to the dressing room and celebrated with his typical machine gun shooting style. It wasn’t the first time Tilan had done it. But when Shaun Pollock in commentary said that he may well have been shooting at the selectors, the press picked it up and went to town.
Kapila Wijegunawardene has had a couple of stints as chief selector in recent times. In 2015, he picked the little known Kusal Mendis to tour New Zealand. Mendis had played just a couple of First-Class games at that stage. A few months later, he came up with a stunning 176 against Steve Smith’s Australian side to lead the way to an unimaginable 3-0 whitewash. Despite an ODI average of 30 and constant heckling in social media, the selectors are in no mood to drop Mendis for they see him doing some great things in the near future.
There have been times that the selectors find out that they had been sacked from the media. The late Guy de Alwis, one of the best chief selectors we have had intended some bold changes for the dead rubber against Zimbabwe in 2002. Sri Lanka had already secured the series and the final game at Asigirya was of academic interest.
De Alwis wanted to rest some seniors and blood in several young players. The senior players took the matter up to Minister of Sports Johnston Fernando. He sacked the chief selector immediately. Poor De Alwis was driving up to Kandy on the morning of the match when he learned from the radio that he had lost his job. Not everyone used mobile phones those days (2002). Certainly not most journalists. So, De Alwis, who used one, called up the press box to find out whether it was true that he had lost his job. He was such a nice guy not many wanted to get on the phone and give him the message. Eventually, the Media Manager volunteered.
A gentle giant, he was taken away from us all too soon. His vision for Sri Lankan cricket was truly amazing and he was someone who spotted talent and leaders quite early.
