I hope they are not rushing Chameera back! Nice to see KJP back!

Born again cult (& Burghers) run a grip in the SLC.Vandersay enjoys a free ride all the time.Pastor Jerome, Umpire Lyndal, Ashley Silva,Mohan Silva,Jerome Jayaratna,Sangha,Mahela,Kalpage,Ravin W. Samantha D, Hathura ,Shammi ,Godfrey etc what more proof you want holding all top positions.COPE named Ashley as the worst CEO in the country but he still enjoys & warms it over a decade now.Not just reports we want urgent effective actions.They have stopped the Pirith Ceremony for departing teams which is our culture.Bring an interim board asap .

Wow! This was published in the Financial Times? Calling any religion a cult is offensive and what kind of joke is this about influencing selection?? First player agents were accused of having powerful influence and now it’s a religious minority being blamed. Ridiculous theories!

What changes should we make for the next match?

Lahiru Kumara’s current form in his bowling is very poor and has even fallen below the expected level after his injury. SLC and our fast bowling coach should work very closely with him during this tournament (during practise sessions) to rectify this problem at the earliest. I think he is trying to bowl quick and finding it difficult to control both the line, length. As he is the only fast bowler we have, apart from Chameera who could consistently bowl above 140 Kph his form has to be perfect before the T20 WC.

If you look at his averages during the two matches he played in the current T20 tournament one would say they are awful. Just refer to the following link:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/bowling/best_career_economy_rate.html?id=14060;type=tournament

Out of the 26 bowlers who have bowled in the four matches played so far,
He is placed the last with a bowling average of 84.00,
His Economy Rate is 12.0 runs/over (24th place out of the 26)

Excellent points! And you make a very important point about populist politicians. We should not get hoodwinked by all these committees and meetings they organise just to make it seem like action is being taken.

Mahanama seems like a good choice to be Chairman of Selectors. And I am in complete agreement with your views.

100% agree with Sa’adi. Only very few cricket commentators these days who have the courage to talk straight. Bulk of them do not want to upset technical committee or the board.
We expected lot from this technical committee but they have failed so far. The new contracts with KPI’s appear to be having some faults. No point of having KPI’s if you cannot measure them in a transparent manner. Once cricketers pointed it out that to the board and the technical committee they got angry. Now they are all out to take revenge from senior cricketers. Even our great Murali’s reaction was very poor.
It is good to give more opportunity to young talented cricketers. But we need a good short, medium and long terms plans with seniors also in the mix.
We also need a chief selector who is capable of earning respect from from all the cricketers. Of course he cannot make everybody happy but with clear policies and transparent action he can earn respect from everybody. ( such as Mahanama )

The author Thawfeeq is a veteran journalist and one of the most respected cricket writers in SL.

He has given us a different perspective on this issue and we must value that. All the bayyos in the SL media and some former players are behaving like political stooges and giving us only one angle.

I have only read one other article about this contract issue that gives a balanced view like Thawfeeq has and all other news coming from SL about this has been to punish the players and chase our valuable talent away.

These bayyos were attacking Kumar and Mahela years ago too. Not every person has the knowledge/skills to manage employees and value staff in order to grow and be successful.

Bayyos have no management skills or good ideas. Cricketers are the cricket board’s top assets and should be top priority.

Read this article as well if you want to get a clearer picture of this fiasco: https://www.islandcricket.lk/news/featured/sri-lanka-contracts-cricketers-dispute-210615/

Most SL journalists are idiots. Sa’adi has brains. Rex wants harsher punishments for players who broke the bio bubble. Rex wanted Malinga to be taught a lesson too when Mailinga had an issue with the board. These idiots must be thinking there are international quality cricketers under every coconut tree because they are chasing away many players. I can’t believe we went into several world cups without Upul Tharanga who is one of the greatest ODI batsmen in our history. He has 15 ODI centuries and had at least 10 more ODI tons under his belt but his career was mismanaged by idiotic selectors like Sanath Jayasuriya and others. Angelo and Dimuth are now facing same calamity. These guys are in their prime years and have the ability to score big, match winning hundreds.