MAHELA BATS FOR PLAYER MANAGERS - JAYAWARDENE

Players hire Charlie not that Charlie comes and hires the players It’s very unfair that just one manager is been targeted We didn’t pick players on who their manager was

Former Sri Lanka Skipper Mahela Jayawardene in an exclusive interview with Mirrorcricket.lk brushed aside allegations that managers of players influenced the team selection process. Jayawardene is the first Sri Lankan cricketer to employ a manager to explore the commercial opportunities that came with his success in international cricket. Jayawardene also spoke about the current status of the National Team and what measures Sri Lanka should take to correct the woes of the National Team.

Q Lost to Zimbabwe, tough series against Bangladesh, where is Sri Lanka cricket heading?

Well, I see a little pattern building up, obviously the confidence of the players have gone down a bit. We are making mistakes on the field. I think they will take responsibility for those mistakes - batting and bowling and on the field as well. Few crucial catches were dropped in the last six months which has been highlighted.

At the same time not having the confidence of their (players) places in the team has contributed to the situation that we are in.

We are bringing up lot of young cricketers into the setup which is good. But at the same time we are not keeping them in the set up long enough. As we bring them in, put them out and bring them back again, so a lot of the players who are in the team are not sure of their places in the team.

Players who come in to the team are under pressure unless they have few good outings in the middle. So, it is unfortunate but something that we need to rectify and make sure that these young players are developed in our first-class level before they come and play in the international level.

Q Is Sri Lanka picking the correct combinations for the squads?

I thought we did pick the squads correctly, but we haven’t been consistent. We pick a player and all of a sudden they (players) get dropped and a new set of players come in to the playing XI. So, sometimes when you bring in a new player you might have to do two changes to the team to accommodate and keep the balance of the team.

Q There have been serious allegations against playermanagers in social media. You have put away these allegations as gossips, thoughts on it?

Obviously, whatever came on in the gossip channels, I cannot answer because there’s so many false accusations. But whatever came out in the mainstream media, it’s very unfortunate. We absolutely deny that. Another accusation was that we get a commission from player’s match-fees. We don’t make money out of this.

It’s very unfair that just one manager is been targeted when there are so many other managers managing players and apparently there’s nothing wrong with that. So, intelligent people who are looking at this will realise why this is. It is just a diversion, but we will come out and explain all that in due course in the right way, but we flatly deny all these allegations.

When we played and when we had the leadership role from 2006 to 2015, we came to five World Cup finals and won one World Cup. We were one of the most consistent teams in the world and we picked the best players to the team. We didn’t pick them on who their manager was, what colour they were, what religion or what background they came from. We picked the right players who could win matches for Sri Lanka.

Q There has been some accusations directed at Angelo Mathews saying that during his captaincy, he favoured players managed by his manager Charlie Austin. Do you think it’s possible?

How can it happen? Obviously I’m not in the system so I don’t know. But you have a Chairman of Selectors and another four selectors and they make the final call. Since Angelo (Mathews) is the captain you can get his input but the constitution says the selectors pick the final team. If they (selectors) feel that’s what is happening, they can come out and say that this is what the captain is doing and we don’t want to work with him or they can make the allegation. But the National Selectors are not saying anything here. Someone else from outside saying all these things, I don’t think it’s fair.

Q Charlie Austin - how has he impacted cricket in Sri Lanka and how did you get in to him?

Charlie Austin was in Sri Lanka in the early 2000’s working for Cricinfo, and I’ve asked him to manage my other affairs. It’s like me getting a driver who would drive me a distance or driving me in the night. I pay a salary. So, like that I have asked Charlie (Austin) to come and help me with my commercial stuff which I just could not manage.

Beyond that what he does is, he helps cricketers to structure their lives, their finances, going forward to make sure that there is security and there is a life after cricket. All that is being given by his involvements, bringing other professionals who will come and advice how they (cricketers) need to conduct themselves and what kind of things they can do.

Q But do you think, it’s ethical for a manager to manage around 70 percent of the players in the National side?

If the players are talented, if they are the best skilled players and if they are the players that the selectors are selecting, it doesn’t matter who’s handling the players.

National Coach, selectors, people involved in the selection process makes a solid decision and say these are the players we have picked. There are other managers who are handling equal number of players, may be they are not being selected because of their skills. If the selectors feel those players are skilled enough to play in the National Team, they will get picked and they would play. It’s simple as that.

I don’t think that’s where the problem is. There are so many other people who are managing players which hasn’t come to the limelight.

Players hire Charlie (Austin) that’s the important thing, it’s not that Charlie comes and hires the players, players hire Charlie to do a different job.

Q Are these stories on the rise because of the poor performances of the National Team?

I don’t know, it might be. It’s very unfortunate. I think, like I always said, we need to find the actual root cause of these issues, it’s not just one thing. It’s a lot of things together. Whether our domestic cricket structure helps to develop players properly? Are we creating the correct environment for the players? Are we picking the right players? Do we have a plan going forward, what’s our vision? We need to plan all that.

Q Talking about Dinesh Chandimal, what has happened to him as a player?

He had one bad tournament (Champions Trophy) and that can happen to anyone. But you need to find what’s best for Dinesh Chandimal, what position and what his role in the team. There are a lot of people saying a lot of different things, but he is being consistent with the bat scoring runs. There were lot of criticisms saying that his (Dinesh Chandimal) strike-rate is low, so that he is putting pressure on the other batsmen. But you need to find a role for him to play since he is scoring runs.

Q Another accusation for you and Sangakkara was that both of you held your batting position at No. 3 and No. 4, so players like Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal didn’t get much opportunity?

What I don’t understand is that how we could have made those changes. If we had made those changes and if those players took time to develop in to those roles, we wouldn’t have been able to get into five World Cup finals and win one and be a consistent team for ten years.

Q Mahela Jayawardene’s future with SLC?

I don’t know. Honestly I don’t know. I’ve always said that I will help, and I came and helped for 10 to 12 months with the structure, that’s an area that I think, I can definitely help and develop it. But it’s not being followed up. It’s lying somewhere. I’m not looking for a full time coaching job, which is something I cannot do with my family commitments and various other things.

Q Thilanga Sumathipala has stated that you are still an inexperienced as a coach, thoughts on that?

Yes, it could be, because I haven’t done any National level coaching or involved as a full time coach. I have only coached Mumbai Indians and my second stint will come against Kuluna Titans (BPL). My ideology is quite different. How I approach coaching and how I execute things are quite different. But I have is 18 years of international cricket experience. BY UMAIR WOLID PIC BY DUSHYANTHA RATHNAYAKE

It’s very unfair that just one manager is been targeted when there are so many other managers managing players and apparently there’s nothing wrong with that. So, intelligent people who are looking at this will realise why this is. It is just a diversion, but we will come out and explain all that in due course in the right way, but we flatly deny all these allegations Charlie Austin was in Sri Lanka in the early 2000’s working for Cricinfo, and I’ve asked him to manage my other affairs. It’s like me getting a driver who would drive me a distance or driving me in the night. I pay a salary. So, like that I have asked Charlie (Austin) to come and help me with my commercial stuff which I just could not manage