Chief Selector Jayasuriya resigns saying fellow officials accused him of favouring a foreign coach

By Channaka de Silva
The panel appointed by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to pick the next national coach has decided to nominate the current Sri Lanka interim coach Marvan Atapattu for the position to guide the Sri Lanka team to the next World Cup and beyond. The committee interviewed Atapattu in person last morning and interviewed the only other short-listed candidate John Lewis of England on Skype in the evening but decided to recommend to Atapattu for ratification by the SLC Executive Committee which meets this evening. The eleven-member committee met last morning to make a final short list from the previously short-listed nine candidates, but before which chief national selector Sanath Jayasuriya dropped a bombshell, resigning from his position in the committee to pick the national coach. Jayasuriya, who remained the most powerful man in the establishment in cricket related matters, had sent an email in the morning suddenly to SLC President Jayantha Dharmadasa and Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga saying he wished to step down from the committee, in a move that sent shockwaves in cricket circles.
Jayasuriya did not disclose the reasons for his shock decision, but made sure he distanced himself as much as possible from the process. “I have my reasons which I would reveal at the appropriate time. I was not part of this decision. Some officials informed me of what happened at the meeting today, but I want make to clear that I was not part of that decision,” Jayasuriya said last night.
In the email he sent, Jayasuriya however had stated that some fellow SLC officials had accused him of favouring the appointment of a foreign coach ahead of the only local candidate Atapattu. He said such prejudice did not allow him to carry out an independent duty. “There seems to be several factions within, under the impression that my only intention is to bring in a foreign coach.  It is indeed extremely disheartening to know as we are preparing for a world cup and the game of cricket is marginalized due to such inferences,” Jayasuriya has stated in his email.
Though he was the chief selector, it is not a secret that his role was not limited to that of his job description and that he prevailed in all decision making in cricket matters at SLC in the past few years. Being one of the greatest cricketers ever to set foot on the cricket field, the former Sri Lanka captain had been a tremendous success in all his decision making in recent times and managed to bring Sri Lanka on par with the best teams of the world. His dedication and hard-work was unquestioned which made his mysterious resignation all the more baffling.

"There seems to be several factions within, under the impression that my only intention is to bring in a foreign coach"

Atapattu who was appointed as interim head coach after Englishman Paul Farbrace suddenly left the job, enjoyed a record triumphant series in England and tasted success again in Sri Lanka against Pakistan to boost his claim for the job full-time.
However, SLC officials did not opt to accept the former Sri Lanka captain as the natural successor to the job and instead decided to call for applications, a process which had now proved to be a farce.
It is a widely known fact that a section of officials have been opposing the appointment of Atapattu and it will be interesting to see how the officials would react to the recommendation of the committee to nominate Atapattu to the job at today’s meeting which is expected to be  a heated one.
The eleven-member committee included Asanga Seneviratne, Mohan De Silva, Nishantha Ranatunga, Hirantha Perera, Nuski Mohamed, Sanath Jayasuriya, Jayananda Warnaweera, Shammi Silva, Dushan Soyza, Ranjit Fernando, and Head of Coaching Jerome Jayaratne. Along with Jayasuriya, another member of the committee Shammi Silva also did not attend the meeting yesterday.