Sri Lanka Cricket exposes the Great mismatch-BY CALLISTUS DAVY

Sanath Jayasuriya

Only Sanath Jayasuriya was supposed to take the field while several in the squad were average Sri Lankan players during their playing days

A temporary or interim committee running the affairs of Sri Lanka Cricket after the term of an elected membership ended last month, committed yet another unfathomable twist in less than a week, this time releasing a squad of players that it branded ‘Greats’ to play in a so-called fund raiser charity match.

The squad had just three of the Greats, Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillekaratne but literally only one of them, Jayasuriya, was to take the field with Tillekaratne also named as coach while Aravinda did not show any overwhelming desire to be part of the match when the announcement was made to the media last month apparently on the grounds of match fitness.

But what cricket followers were unable to stomach most was that the current caretakers of Sri Lanka Cricket had by their unguarded enthusiasm undermined both the concept of greatness and fund-raising.

Apart from the 1996 World Cup winning trio, the rest of the players tied up with greatness in the squad were nowhere near such a thoroughbred branding with some of them not even of the top-shelf variety during their playing days.

But Sri Lanka Cricket defended the selection of the Greats saying they did their best to get all World Cup players and several other past greats onto one platform and circumstances did not permit it.

“Most of them (Greats) were approached but they had their reasons when it comes to performing in a match after many years and we had to respect that. So we selected other players who were also great players not necessarily in a World Cup winning team,” said SLC’s Chief Executive Ashley de Silva.

Cricket followers contend it was a ‘blessing’ that the coronavirus intervened to thwart the match on May 4 that would have been an outright farce hot on the heals when the Interim Committee now running cricket discovered an un-named ghost cricketer in the team that it said was directed to undergo psychiatric treatment.