‘Lankan cricket in chaos, needs total revamp’
Sri Lankan cricket needs structural, administrative and constitutional changes urgently to arrest its slump, former board chief Sidath Wettimuny said on Tuesday.
A respected figure in the island’s cricket, Wettimuny led Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim committee in 2015 before the current set-up headed by Thilanga Sumathipala took over.
The SLC top brass, selectors and the country’s cricket structure have all come under fire over the team’s abject showing against India. Swept aside 3-0 in Tests and 5-0 in the ODIs, the hosts’ are in danger of suffering a washout with only Wednesday’s one-off T20 game left.
“We’ve had four captains in this series (in fact, five). That should tell you the story. It’s crazy. It is just a state of chaos. In this scenario, nobody is able to perform,” Wettimuny told Hindustan Times.
Sri Lankan cricket’s woes are a culmination of things. Sri Lanka beat Australia 3-0 in last year’s home Test series, but only drew 1-1 against visiting Bangladesh and beat Zimbabwe with difficulty in a one-off Test.
The ODI series loss to Zimbabwe after a 1-1 draw against Bangladesh has highlighted the team’s plight with injuries adding to the woes. “It’s very worrying,” Wettimuny, 61, said. “Our firstclass cricket structure has been so bad for a while and nothing has been done about it.”
Wettimuny called for an overhaul of domestic cricket. “We must sort out our firstclass structure. We’ve been sitting on our laurels thinking we won the World Cup in 1996.”
Wettimuny said Sri Lankan cricket was very politicised and clubs were all-powerful with 147 votes. “There are 31 votes in India and your Supreme Court has told (BCCI) to bring it down. That tells you the story in Sri Lanka.
“But every time we try to do something, someone comes and scuttles it. I was the chairman of the interim committee (in 2015). We wanted to bring in state cricket, Mahela Jayawardene had spoken about it, to bring in necessary infrastructure, people that needs to be in place etc. But as soon as we left (early 2016) it was thrown out of the window.”