Squad for South Africa tour not finalized, says SLC

By Harsha Amarasinghe

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) maintains that the Test squad for the tour of South Africa is yet to be finalized amidst speculation that the twenty-two players who were picked for the training camp in Pallekele starting from Thursday (13), would travel to South Africa. 

As it stands, the national selectors are not allowed to officially name a squad as their tenure ended a couple of months ago and the SLC is still to get the approval for the new committee from the Sports Ministry which begs the question as to how these twenty-two players were selected. 

“The players were selected collectively by the coaching staff and the Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne in consultation with the former Chairman of Selection Committee, but this is certainly not the official squad for the South Africa tour,” Chief Executive Officer of SLC  Ashley de Silva told Daily Mirror. 

De Silva further added that the national squad could only be selected by a new selection committee. 

“Once the new committee is appointed they could make the changes they want and name the official squad that will travel to South Africa,” the 56-year-old claimed. 

Meanwhile, the former chairman of the national selection committee Ashantha de Mel also confirmed that he indeed had a conversation with the head coach Mickey Arthur and captain Dimuth Karunaratne after which the twenty-two players were selected for the coaching camp up in Pallekele. 

“This is just a squad selected for practices and obviously I had a chat with the coach and the captain beforehand,” the former Sri Lanka fast bowler told Daily Mirror. 

However, the 61-year-old also maintained that the squad is not ‘official’. 

“This is certainly not a team selected to go to South Africa. Once the selection committee is approved, we will select the team. Perhaps there will be changes and we don’t know that yet,” added de Mel. 

De Mel who delivered Sri Lanka’s very first ball in Test cricket back in 1982, has high praise for the young left-arm fast medium bowler Dilshan Madushanka who is currently in Pallekele ahead of the training camp today (13). 

“He (Madushanka) performed very well (3/47) against West Indies at the Oval (earlier this year in a tour match), and the coach has seen the potential he has, and we have to build up players and if does go to South Africa, I think it will be a good experience for him even if he doesn’t get a game,” de Mel said. 

Sources however, suggest that the SLC are unlikely to make any changes to the group of twenty-two who are involved in the coaching camp in Pallekele as all of them are expected to travel to South Africa, and the squad would have been named officially had the selection committee been appointed.