Sri Lanka chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya will vacate his position after the ongoing series against India
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Sri Lanka’s selection committee, including chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya, has resigned following a spate of disappointing results.
The committee will remain in force until the end of the ongoing home series against India as there are only two more ODIs and a one-off Twenty20 International left.
To make matters worse, the selectors’ decision to step down comes just two months after they were given six-month extensions on their contracts.
“Sri Lanka Cricket chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya, as well as committee members Ranjith Madurasinghe, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Asanka Gurusinha and Eric Upashantha, have decided to resign,” Sri Lanka’s sports ministry said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. “A combined letter bearing the names of the above committee has conveyed this decision to sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara. According to the letter, their tenure will end on September 7.”
Sri Lanka have suffered a lot of disappointment this year as they endured a horrendous tour of South Africa, a surprising loss to Bangladesh in a Test match, a dismal Champions Trophy campaign and an embarrassing 3-2 loss to Zimbabwe in an ODI series.
They can now add an ODI series loss to India to that list as the tourists hold an unassailable 3-0 lead going into the fourth ODI in Colombo on Thursday.
Jayasuriya and the rest of the selectors had been under mounting pressure to step down as they experimented too much instead of sticking with a core group of players.
Gurusinha, who is Sri Lanka’s cricket manager, admitted that he and the other selectors had no choice but to resign due to the country’s less than impressive results in 2017.
“The reason for the selectors stepping down is pretty straightforward. The team was losing so much we had to take the responsibility,” Gurusinha said. “We had no choice. We have to give a chance to a new lot. My case is a little different since I have only been a selector since April, but when the others are stepping down I can’t stay there.”
With Sri Lanka’s next assignment being a full series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in late September, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) are likely to assemble a new selection committee in the next three weeks.