Sri Lanka Cricket conducted a post-mortem of their men’s and women’s performances in the ICC World T20 2016 at the presence of media on Tuesday at SLC headquarters.
Sri Lanka men’s team won only against Afghanistan while losing out to West Indies, England and South Africa. Sri Lanka’s women’s team recorded their best effort by ending at the fifth position at the final points table.
One of the main questions raised by media was ‘what’s next’ as the short tenure of Aravinda De Silva and his selection committee was ending.
“Aravinda took a daunting responsibility to head the National Selection Committee for a short period. We have given Sanath Jayasuriya’s name as the Chief Selector to Sports Minister and have asked to appoint him before May 1st in order to work with the present committee to select the national squad for the England tour but our cricket need Aravinda’s expertise so he has agreed to contribute as Advisor of Cricket Affair for Sri Lanka Cricket,” Sumathipala said.
He also disclosed that former Sri Lanka cricketer and former team manager Charith Senanayake will be the manager of the Sri Lanka national cricket team for the tour to England and Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka.
“We will certainly go with one captain policy for all three formats in the future. We must give confidence and stability to Mathews and Chandimal to grow in their roles.” Sumathipala said regarding a query by a media personnel whether the fans would see different captains for different formats in the future.
“We have the skill, discipline and the commitment. It’s just we didn’t respond to the situations at the time and as you all know, T20 is a fast game so you need to make decisions very quickly. Unfortunately for us, we were not settled enough and we were experimenting a little too much. “Sri Lanka T20 skipper Angelo Mathews defended his team’s lacklustre performances at the recently concluded ICC World T20 Tournament in India.
“Angelo was injured before the England game but he still played the match and bowled his quota of overs and scored 78 runs. After the game, his medical condition was very bad. He used several injections because he knew that if we lost that game, we were out of the tournament. That’s how the players must play for the country. We expect the same from every player. “Sumathipala stressed on the fact that the players must put their bodies on the line for the country.
“We badly felt the loss of Shashikala Siriwardene in the middle of the tournament. Very pleased with our team’s performance. I think we could have beaten Australia and New Zealand and get selected to the semi-finals. “The stand-in Sri Lanka women’s captain, Chamari Atapattu said.
“Once he is fit, he needs to first get a clearance from our medical board. If he (Malinga) is fit, he is still eligible for selection to the national team. If he defies us and goes, he can only return after sitting on the bench, he cannot go without our permission. “Sumathipala said whether Malinga would be allowed to play IPL.
Sumathipala also said that Malinga would face disciplinary action for the comments he made to the media regarding his selection for the ICC World T20 in India as he is still a centrally-contracted player for Sri Lanka Cricket.
