After finding it rather impossible to sack the national team’s suspended coach, the clueless Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) officials, in order to keep the drama going on, have now decided to hold an internal inquiry against Chandika Hathurasingha, Cricket Age reliably learns.
The decision was taken during the Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting on Monday (September 16).
Following Sri Lanka’s reasonably successful World Cup, where they finished in sixth place with 3 wins in 9 games, the SLC decided to remove national team support staff, including Hathurasingha.
Accordingly, following a special directive from Sports Ministry, Hathurusingha is currently facing suspension while fast bowling coach Romesh Rathnayake shouldered responsibility as interim coach for New Zealand Series.
However, as it has become visible that SLC can not sack or remove Hathurusingha, largely due to his watertight contract, now the board has found itself in a quandary.
“During the ExCo, the reply of Mr. Hathurusingha on the charge sheet was discussed and accordingly we have decided to hold an internal inquiry” a top SLC administrator told Cricket Age.
Moreover, this drama is likely to be continued for some more time in order to divert cricket loving public attention from more relevant topics like Forensic audit report, ongoing COPE investigation. After the world cup, Sports Minister Harin Fernando had convinced few top coaches of cricket fraternity for next Sri Lanka Coach Post, however, due to the inability of Shammi Silva led administration, nothing could be finalized. Especially, Russell Domingo, former South Africa Coach, was almost certain to replace Hathurusingha (only due to Harin’s efforts). However, due to Shammi Silva administration’s incompetence in handling Hathurusingha’s matter in proper way, Domingo waited and waited and finally joined Bangladesh Cricket as head coach.
The reality is that, Shammi Silva, who believes in so called ‘hire and fire’ philosophy, is neither able to hire new coach for the national team nor is able to fire Hathurusingha and all his claims of so called revival of Sri Lanka cricket have punctured big time!
