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Sri Lanka Cricket have refuted all claims they have launched an investigation involving their chairman of selectors Asantha de Mel and his role in the selection of Sanath Jayasuriya.
Sri Lanka Cricket have refuted all claims they have launched an investigation involving their chairman of selectors Asantha de Mel and his role in the selection of Sanath Jayasuriya.

Jayasuriya was pulled out of retirement last week by De Mel who felt that the Matara Mauler’s experience would be of use to the senior squad now in England as the three openers had struggled. It was a selection decision done in what is seen as the ‘best interests of the team’ but also came as a surprise in England as well as Sri Lanka. Media coordinator Samantha Algama said today that the interim committee have at no stage ordered SLC’s Cricket Affairs Committee to investigate what news reports in Colombo and New Delhi claim are a variety of allegations against De Mel.

‘Any suggestion of an investigation is pure fabrication. There is no truth at all in these claims,’ Algama said, after consulting with the SCL chief executive Duleep Mendis. ‘De Mel is not under investigation of any sort and this needs to be made clear to stop rumours that he is.’

He also said that it was ‘totally wrong’ to suggest that Ranjan Madugalle, the senior ICC match referee and former national Test captain, was involved in any SLC committee.

It has also been suggested by the SLC that the information suggesting a probe and ‘kickbacks’ had been ‘deliberately planted’ to create a wrong impression of not only the interim committee’s workings but also those involved with the cricket affairs committee that contains several former captains and De Mel.

What has been confirmed is that while Jayasuriya has an advertising contract worth about US $20 000, whether this was dependent on him being selected for the England tour is unclear. Suggestions this persuaded De Mel has been described by SLC as ‘mischievous and slanderous and totally false’.

Jayasuriya did not attend a team function held at the Sri Lanka High Commission in London earlier this week and is not included in the team playing Sussex at Hove. This suggests that he is unlikely to play in the second Test in Birmingham as team management want to continue with younger players.

An annoyed Madugalle, a former Test captain and highly respected ICC match referee, today also refuted any involvement in any SLC committee but declined to offer further comment.

It was De Mel, who in the Sunday Island on May 7, two days after being reinstalled as chairman of selectors said he was thinking of recalling Jayasuriya ‘who was forced to retire’ and given 12 hours to write a retirement letter before the squad was named for the second Test against Pakistan at Asgiriya in Kandy.

‘Jayasuriya is the fittest of all the players,’ said De Mel, when announcing plans two weeks ago that the left-hander has something still to offer the side as a Test batsman.

Source:India Sports

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