Muttiah Muralitharan, speaking to the Daily Mirror after having been appointed to the Technical Advisory Committee, revealed that Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa was the first official to invite him and offer an opportunity to work in cricket administration.
Alongside him, Sri Lanka’s cricketing legends Aravinda de Silva (Chairman), Kumar Sangakkara and Roshan Mahanama were appointed to the committee by the Sports Minister to uplift the standards of cricket in Sri Lanka.
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Muralitharan reckons that he has got a perfect team to work with. “Three guys have captained Sri Lanka with some guys playing in 1980s while someone like Sanga being modern having played till 2015. There’s a lot of experience. Whatever the suggestions we want to give the board, we will collectively discuss and put them forward. I don’t want to speak my mind out before we meet as a committee. I don’t have any favourites or enemies in the sport. We want to be fair to everybody,” he explained.
Muralitharan also expressed him disappointment in seeing how cricket in Sri Lanka has been in ‘shambles’ after 2015. “Sri Lanka is now playing for qualifiers and losing test matches without fighting back. Discipline has eroded. I have played and coached at the highest level and I know what we are missing,” Muralitharan said.
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Muralitharan is very happy to be involved in cricket committee right now but said that he will not hesitate to resign if their recommendations are not implemented.
“Yes, ten years after my retirement from international cricket I have given my consent to be in the committee. I have joined this committee to help the game which we all love, but if our recommendations are not implemented within three months, I will not wait to leave the committee.”
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Muralitharan further said that he likes the idea of offering performance-based contracts for the players.
“Definitely, the players are supposed to perform well when we pay them. If they don’t, they have no right to be in the team. Even at corporate levels, the employees are given incentives to show their performance and the same rules should apply here” Muralitharan said.
