Chandimal, brain fade or just brain dead? Captain, Coach and Manager face charges – BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE
Dinesh Chandimal must surely go down in the annals of Cricket history as the dumbest man ever to be chosen to lead his country after being exposed as a blatant cheat in the second Test against the West Indies at St. Lucia.
The Sri Lankan Skipper must lay claim to be plainly stupid or illiterate if he was not aware of the repercussions coming out of South Africa to three Australians just a couple of months ago for deliberately deciding to change the course of a game by tampering with the ball.
With cameras trained on every player for some time now due to the various methods chosen by players to gain an unfair advantage over the opposition, Chandimal must have had a brain fade if he thought he could get away with his actions, compounding his
situation further by denying any wrong doing and then contesting the charges against him despite damming video evidence which clearly showed his actions to be against the spirit of the game.
The ICC for its part must act without fear or favour and increase his penalty if his appeal fails in its bid to deter any others who think they should be let off on pure fabrication or any other excuse for leniency.
Chandimal is not the sole culprit for his actions as a look further should implicate the coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and his Manager or High Performance representative Asanka Gurusinha who are ultimately responsible for bringing the game into disrepute.
Subsequent to the ball tampering incident ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson charged Chandimal, Hathurusinghe and Manager Gurusinha a level 3 offence relating to “Conduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game”. They face suspension for two to four Tests depending on the outcome of an ICC initiated hearing under Judicial Commissioner Michael Beloff QC in July.
Meanwhile Chandimal’s appeal against any wrongdoing was thrown out at a hearing under Beloff and the suspension of one Test will be upheld which means he will be packed off and banished home for the remainder of the series.
Bad enough the struggling Sri Lankans are in transition stage as they battle to re-establish themselves in the top bracket of world Cricket, but the desperate measures they have opted to take to fast track their progress if definitely not in the best interests of the sport.
From a Sri Lankan Cricket administration perspective, it is hoped that they will act decisively with harsh punishment meted out to all involved and administer an outcome similar to what Cricket Australia did with their three ball tampering cheats if the game is to recover from its disastrous course.
Sri Lanka Cricket is once again at crossroads as it always has been with the current administrators in the firing line for bad administrative decisions despite delivering some form of financial viability which previous administrators were charged of siphoning for their own gain.
The circle of unrest within sadly appears to sit as normal for all things related to the sport in the island nation.
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