de Mel lashes out at Sri Lankan selectors

Ashantha de Mel, Sri Lanka's sacked selection chairman, has lashed out at two of his fellow selectors, KM Nelson and Shabbir Asgerally, claiming that they were serving "vested interests" and "promoting their own agendas".

de Mel was ousted as selection chairman on Friday in a surprise move by Jewwan Kumaratunga, Sri Lanka's sports minister, after the panel had been reappointed only three weeks earlier. Kumaratunga trimmed the committee to just five selectors as Ranjith Madurasinghe, a former Sri Lankan spinner, was also sacked.

"I feel that in selection matters there has been too much of influence and some selectors have vested interests and work towards their hidden agendas," de Mel told The Island newspaper. "There were instances when a selector was on the phone for a long while talking to senior players, before and after meetings. I was disgusted with what was going on."

De Mel claimed that he was thinking of resigning anyway: "I told [Marvan] Atapattu while in New Zealand that I didn't want to continue with the same set of selectors. Selectors should have the respect of the players but that wasn't the case."

Both Asgerally and Nelson have limited cricketing experience, and neither played for Sri Lanka. Nelson, closely affiliated with Jayantha Dharmadasa and Sanath Jayasuriya, has a controversial past as a selector, famously writing off Roshan Mahanama prior to a Test against India in 1997, claiming that he would pull down his trousers in public if Mahanama scored runs. Mahamana scored 225 but Nelson's pants stayed up.

"How will the players respect a selector when he threatens to put his trousers down or scolds players in raw filth? Have Sri Lanka's standards gone so badly? Don't we have another Test cricketer who could do the job of a selector?"

Sri Lanka's selection past is strewn with controversy and allegations of club bias. de Mel predicted more problems for the future: "Some of these selectors weren't independent. They were very much representing the interests of clubs."

de Mel's 13-month chairmanship included a major public spat with Atapattu after de Mel accused senior players of blocking the progress of younger players. He dropped Tillakaratne Dilshan in apparent frustration, forcing Atapattu to blood an inexperienced batsman during a tight two-Test series in Pakistan.