• Alleges player-manager influence has returned 

Former selection committee chair Pramodya Wickramasinghe says that his panel had selected three 15-man squads originally for Sri Lanka’s upcoming all-format series in the West Indies.

He alleged that the new panel headed by Kapila Wijegunawardene had tinkered with the selections done by his committee, at the insistence of player managers, by increasing the Test, ODI and T20I squads to 17, 16 and 15-men, respectively.

Wickramasinghe stated that Kasun Rajitha was not originally picked by his panel in the Test squad.

He insisted that the new panel had removed spinner Dunith Wellalage whom they had named as the vice captain for the ODI squad, to groom him for the future and with the next Men’s ODI World Cup in mind, in favour of Kamindu Mendis.

He also questioned under what circumstances both Binura Fernando and Nuwan Thushara had been brought into the T20I set up, with a lingering fitness issue particularly hovering over the latter.

He stated that player manager influence over selections which had been out of the spotlight during his short stint, had allegedly returned in the aftermath of the new selection panel formed by the Sports Minister last week.

“Looking at these selections across the three formats, it is plainly obvious as to who has called the shots here,” the 1996 World Cup-winning pacer said.

“With this sort of influence dictating terms, as to where our cricket will head in the foreseeable future, I guess is anyone’s guess,” he opined.