Citing for Dananjaya deepens Sri Lanka’s turmoil
Spinner’s suspect action will be tested by experts Manager resigns as Chandimal is ruled out
England arrived in Kandy yesterday with their opponents Sri Lanka in meltdown. Their captain Dinesh Chandimal has been ruled out for the rest of the series with injury and promising young spin bowler Akila Dananjaya has been cited for a suspicious bowling action.
The team manager, Charith Senanayake, resigned yesterday for personal reasons while Angelo Mathews, the former captain, is another disgruntled figure with a strained relationship with the team management having been sacked as one-day captain and publicly humiliated for being overweight.
Rangana Herath, the team’s leading wicket-taker and most experienced player, retired after the Galle Test, leaving behind a young team who are 1-0 down against England and could lose the series this week in Kandy.
Chandimal has been replaced as captain by Suranga Lakmal after sustaining a groin tear in Galle. Chandimal is the team’s leading batsman and has only just returned from a three-match ban for ball tampering. His place in the squad for the second Test starting on Wednesday has been taken by uncapped batsman Charith Asalanka, who scored 68 in the second practice match against England.
Dananjaya is the off-spinner who can bowl leg-spin and googlies. He was reported by the umpires during the first Test and his action will be tested by biomechanical experts within the next 14 days.
He is free to continue playing and bowling until then, which clears him to play in Kandy this week. England will be glad to keep him in the side after he only took two wickets in the first Test for 183 runs and was the weak link in the first innings when he tried too many variations. At 25 and having played only four Tests, he is inexperienced and needs Herath’s guiding hand.
Herath has been replaced in the squad for the second Test by Malinda Pushpakumara, a 31-yearold left-arm spinner who took five wickets in the only two Tests of his career against India last year.
Mathews responded to being dropped and having his professionalism questioned by scoring two fifties in the Galle Test and, with Chandimal injured, he has to take on the mantle of senior batsman, setting the tone for the rest, who too easily gave away their wickets at the first hint of pressure.
The problems in the Sri Lanka team coincide with their board in disarray and being run by an emergency committee.
The England squad and management gathered on the lawn of the team hotel in Kandy yesterday to observe the two-minute silence on the Armistice Day centenary.
Afterwards the team management held a long meeting as they contemplate difficult selection choices. Jonny Bairstow will today have an intense fitness test on his injured ankle to determine whether he is in contention for a return to the side.
One player leaving the tour is Surrey’s Ollie Pope, who will join up with the Lions squad playing Pakistan A in the UAE after the first day of the second Test. Pope is the second reserve batsman behind Joe Denly and with so much depth in the squad England feel he is better off being with the Lions and playing some first-class cricket.