Himalayan Task for Selectors To Start From The Bottom – Jayasuriya

Chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya has said, Sri Lanka’s new selectors will have to “start from the bottom”.

Jayasuriya was chief selector from February 2013 to March 2015. Jayasuriya helped select the Test squad to England and is now back as chief selector, since May 1.

“I did everything 100% for Sri Lankan cricket,” Jayasuriya told the electronic media . “But if even a little was detracted from that work, then we would have had substantial setbacks because of that. Now what we have to do is start from the bottom. There is a bigger responsibility for me in this stint, than there was when I was first a selector.”

Sri Lanka have defeated a Full-Member side only once this year, beating India in a T20I in Pune. During Jayasuriya’s first tenure, the team had won the 2014 World T20 and a Test series in England, before losing in New Zealand, and making a quarter-final exit in the 2015 World Cup. Jayasuriya said he accepted part of the “responsibility” for a poor showing in the World Cup, but suggested the situation had only worsened since then.

“First we need to look at which players had been chosen in the past,” he said. “Sometimes you pick young players and then later, these players are dropped and fresh players are brought in. When fresh players are brought in, it takes them a while to succeed, and the players you had been investing in are ignored. That is what happened there.”

“When a new selection committee comes, they should talk with the old committee and discuss the good things that we did. If we did good things for Sri Lankan cricket, those policies should be taken forward. That must not have happened at the time, for us to be in this position.”

The Sri Lanka squad departs for the three-Test series in England, on Wednesday.