SLC selection committee quits before end of term

 

The Sri Lankan selection committee, headed by chief selector Aravinda De Silva, has handed in its resignation to the sports minister. On what was a second successive day of churn in the country's cricket establishment, Mahela Jayawardene also quit as the team's vice-captain. Kumar Sangakkara had on Tuesday announced his decision to step down as the the limited-overs' captain of the side.

Aravinda's selection committee was appointed in June 2010, and included Ranjith Fernando, Amal Silva and Azwer Ali. Its term was to end on April 30 and the decision to stand down in advance was, it said in a statement, to allow the new selection committee "an opportunity to make short- and long- term plans, in the way they think is best for our cricket".

"When we took over our assignment, our broad goal was always to hand over Sri Lankan cricket in better shape than when we took over," Aravinda wrote in his resignation letter to the board. "While like everyone else associated with SLC, we are also enormously disappointed at not being able to annex the coveted World Cup, which was lost to India in a highly competitive final, we are happy we have been able to meet most of our objectives in a very short space of time."