Tharanga becomes youngest Chairman of Selectors  

by Rex Clementine  

Sri Lanka’s former white ball captain Upul Tharanga has become the nation’s youngest Chairman of Selectors ushering in a new era. His predecessor Pramodya Wickremesinghe had got an extended run as chief selector doing the job for three years and eventually patience ran out following new lows for the national cricket team costing Sri Lanka a place in the Champions Trophy.

At 38, Tharanga is the nation’s youngest Chief Selector. He was active in First Class cricket even last month having represented his beloved NCC, a club he has played for more than two decades.

Former Test cricketer Indika de Saram is also an active First Class cricketer at the ripe old age of 50 having played his last game for Panadura this month.

Dilruwan Perera was also active in First Class cricket and they will all have to call it a day before resuming office.

Fellow selectors Tharanga Paranavithana and Ajantha Mendis have umpiring and coaching interests and their new roles means that they have got to step down from it all.

A lot of questions has been asked as to whether the time is right for Tharanga to take over as Chief Selector? The trend in other parts of the world too seems to be the same as recently retired players have been roped in for selection roles in a bid to keep pace with the changing trends of the game and to remain relevant. Wahab Riaz, Pakistan’s chief selector is 38 while George Bailey, Australia’s Chairman of Selectors is 41.

The task ahead of Tharanga is an enormous one for Sri Lankan cricket which has suffered many setbacks in recent years and the selectors policies have been inconsistent.

Tharanga himself was picked early at the age of 20 when he had not many runs behind his name in domestic cricket. It was a bold move by then chief selector Lalith Kaluperuma to throw him to the deep end rather than let him establish himself in domestic cricket or ‘A’ team cricket.

Tharanga didn’t let Kaluperuma down as he scored six ODI hundreds in his first year in international cricket. Barring one hundred at home, the other five were scored overseas; Leeds, Lord’s, Mohali, Ahmedabad and Christchurch.

Then coach Tom Moody was also a firm believer that Tharanga could go onto become a leading batter in the world. Although he had a successful career in white ball cricket, he did not live up to the high expectations, partly because once Moody was gone, the selectors and team management did not persevere with him.