SUNDAY MUSINGS

asking them to probe these allegations. That means that the players are confident that they have acted above board and they do not have any skeletons in their cupboards. Then why should the players feel uncomfortable if Pramodya Wickremasinghe is included in the selections committee? The only people who would be uncomfortable would be the guys who would have aces up their sleeve.

It was only last week that we discussed the subject of ‘ discipline concerns’ with Coach Chandika Hathurusingha. What he indicated was that this evil streak had deep roots within. I feel that all that should be taken very seriously, but, yet I feel that he, too, was involved in the mess-up. Just to recall what occurred last June during the second day’s play in the Sri Lanka vs the West Indies match at St. Lucia where play was held up after the Lankan captain Dinesh Chandimal was accused of ball tampering. Yet, the Lankan management lost their cool and acted in a very unbecoming manner and the incident sparked off into an international cricket scandal. Not only Chandimal, even Hathurusingha was slapped a ban by the ICC. In this instance, also it is said that it was Minister Musthapha who was in the midst of the conundrum.

It was not long after when the national cricket institution fell into shame, when there was an attempt by some SLC employees allegedly to siphon off a large sum of money. Criminal Investigations Department detectives were called in to investigate the alleged fraud, involving US$ 5.5 million -- money from a looming England tour.

Official sources said the USD 5.5 million was