Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials came under further criticism after the country’s favourite cricketer, Kumar Sangakkara aired his displeasure at the cancellation of the high profile Test series against South Africa that was to follow the on-going one-day format.
The country’s cricket administrations, since 2009 have been often accused of nepotism, conflict of interests, inefficiency and corruption and the board, led by Upali Dharmadasa and Nishantha Ranatunga last year cancelled the Test series against South Africa to play the Sri Lanka Premier League tournament. In the end, the cricket bosses faced huge embarrassment as the SLPL itself failed to take off. No one has been held accountable for the cock-up.
South Africa has struggled to master Sri Lankan conditions, having lost their last two Test series here in 2004 and 2006 and losing the recent ODI series, 4-1. It was a massive opportunity for Sri Lanka to record a Test series win and improve on their horrible rankings in the ICC Points Table. While South Africa are the number one ranked team in the world, Sri Lanka are placed a lowly seventh.
The cancellation of such a highly important series in a situation perfectly suited for Sri Lanka made critics to call for cricket administrators’ heads to be examined or investigated for not representing the best interests of Sri Lankan cricket.
“The Proteas are the number one ranked side in the world. The ODI series was proof what our spin bowlers can do in our own conditions against South Africa. The South Africans don’t like these conditions much. In that background, had we played that Test series and won, our Test ranking would have gone up,” Sangakkara said.
“In 2017, we are having the World Test Championship. Playing in our own conditions we have a big advantage. If we had played the series against South Africa, that would have been really good. As players, we feel for the guys who play Test cricket only. Sometimes, if they play just two months in a year and don’t play for the rest of the 10 months, it’s not good. If this Test series had been played, it would have been a good thing for our cricket,” Sangakkara went onto add.
The Upali Dharmadasa–Nishantha Ranatunga led board cancelled as many as 10 Test matches over a 12 month period.
