There has been growing public calls for an investigation into the omission of Dinesh Chandimal from Sri Lanka’s World Cup squad which returned to the country early this week after failing to secure the all important semi final slot.
The call for an investigation has been made via social media but a group of cricket enthusiasts are also in the process of petitioning the government to investigate the conduct of head selector Ashantha de Mel who even before the selection process began said publicly that Chandimal will not have a place in the squad.
When he was asked the question why Chandimal was left out, De Mel side stepped the issue and asked the reporter to state the batting slot that Chandimal could have fitted into.
He made the remarks at a Media briefing after the squad returned.
De Mel then deviated from course and brought in the names of Shehan Jayasuriya and Niroshan Dickwella saying they were in-form batsmen.
Both players were not part of the World Cup squad. Sri Lanka’s highest accumulator of runs in the World Cup was Kusal Perera with 273 and ranked 24th the standings.
The rest of the Sri Lankan batting were total failures except for young Avishka Fernando and the ageing Angelo Mathews who scored a hundred in the last match which had no bearing.