With the victory of New Zealand in the third one-day match held in Hamilton, Sri Lanka's one-day World Cup journey ended with the disgrace of having to play in a qualifying tournament to be held in Zimbabwe next June. Sri Lanka, which previously won the ODI World Cup championship (1996) and two runners-up (2007/2011), has faced such a fate.
The Sri Lanka Cricket Board, which issued press releases saying that Mahela's role as the national cricket training consultant is not to travel with the national team, but to prepare strategic plans by working in charge of the entire game of cricket, has not made any statement on this so far. Mahela Jayawardene, who hastily issued statements regarding media reports criticizing his role, is also silent. Pramodya Wickramasinghe, the head of the National Selection Committee, who makes excuses about the selection of the team after the failure of the tournaments, is silent.
Arjuna Ranatunga, who led the team at the same time that Sri Lanka won the ODI World Cup, said that the time has come to take radical decisions to guide the national cricket game back on the right path.
"This is not a question about the performance of the players. Not picking the right team. Lack of focus on physical fitness. Our team's fitness has fallen so low that they cannot play 50 overs. As the cricket coach says, if he is there to make strategic plans, is this the result of his strategic plan? Former cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga, who is also the chairman of the National Sports Council", said.
"There is a problem with decision-makers in cricket. Apart from Mahela and Pramodya, there are no cricket administrators who have played at national level. There are only two or three people who have played in first-class matches. This disaster has happened to us in the last two years by making decisions with such people. No matter how degraded we have been in terms of cricket in recent times, we have not fallen so low. There are more and more trainers. In addition to the main coaches, additional coaches have also been added to the team. Who is responsible for these?", he asked.
The World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe are almost three months away. Arjuna Ranatunga emphasized that only the two best teams of the tournament will qualify for the World Cup to be held in India at the end of this year.
"I request the sports minister to bring former cricket captains and high-level former players and immediately appoint a committee. If time is needed to appoint the National Selection Committee, at least a temporary selection committee should be appointed and prepared for it. What is the use of a highly paid strategic cricket consultant if we have to play a World Cup qualifier for the first time in history? What is the use of a selection committee? What are the benefits of trainers? If we go this way, we will not be able to go to the World Cup even from the qualifying tournament.'' he said.
"Now some people are trying to cover up cricket issues by putting other issues. What is important for Sri Lanka at this time is to find out what happened to cricket. The Sports Minister should immediately intervene in this issue. It is not political interference. At a time when cricket had not fallen so much, former sports ministers like S. B. Dissanayake, Lakshman Kiriella, Navin Dissanayake, and Mahindananda Aluthgamage took radical decisions. The current sports minister is also a minister who took revolutionary decisions like the amendments to the Sports Act. Therefore, steps should be taken to recover the sport from this situation..', Arjuna Ranatunga further said.
He also said that cricket consultant Mahela Jayawardena, head of the selection committee Pramodya Wickramasinghe and the coaching staff have shown their failure by losing direct qualification to the World Cup for the first time to Sri Lanka.
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