Tharanga justifies Wellalage selection
by Rex Clementine
Former captain Upul Tharanga was an admirable bloke when he was playing cricket and he is earning bigger accolades as Chairman of Selectors. Since assuming duties early this year, he has held a media briefing before every home series or tour explaining his decisions. Yesterday was no different as he met journalists at SLC headquarters to discuss the squad picked for the T-20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the United States.
Tharanga shed light into every selection that was made explaining some of the tough calls the selectors had to make. Tharanga’s committee has shown transparency, honesty and accountability. Had it been showcased by his predecessors, Sri Lanka wouldn’t have suffered the humiliation of missing out on a Champions Trophy slot.
The selection of Dunith Wellalage had surprised a few as the all-rounder is yet to make his debut in the shortest format of the game although he had been a regular in the ODI format. Tharanga explained why the 21-year-old was picked.
“When you take the conditions in United States and West Indies, we believe the wickets will be slow there. We played two spinners this year during our bilateral series. We believe that during the World Cup we might need an additional spinner. The left-arm spinner gives you the option of bowling during Power Plays. He also gives you the option of playing a spin bowing all-rounder instead of a seam bowling all-rounder.”
But should Wellalage have been featured in T-20s had he been in the selectors’ plans? “You can’t say that he wasn’t in our plans. But our combination didn’t allow us to play him. Dunith only gets a break when the front-line bowlers aren’t available and he has done justice from the opportunities he has got.”
Sri Lanka also have Dhananjaya de Silva in the 15-member squad and Tharanga said that the squad had enough fire power and the all-round spin bowling option was preferred over the others.
The national cricket team will leave for New York this evening (Tuesday). The team will have a two-week preparation camp in New York. Their campaign gets underway on the 3rd June against South Africa.
Sri Lanka are pooled in Group ‘D’ alongside the Proteas, Nepal, Netherlands and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka will be in US for a month and will play Dallas and Florida as well apart from New York. Their last group game is in St. Lucia in the Caribbean and if they qualify for the second round will move to Antigua.
