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By DINESH WEERAWANSA

Former Sri Lanka Test cricketers Mahes Goonetillake, Don Anurasiri and Ranjith Madurasinghe are to be added to the national cricket selection committee. They are set to replace another three ex-Test cricketers Kapila Wijegunawardena, Amal Silva and Brendon Kuruppu, who resigned over the weekend due to a selection dispute.

Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, Johnston Fernando is expected to make the official appointments today and the selection committee should meet at their earliest to pick the Sri Lanka squad for the third and final Test against Zimbabwe, which is due to commence at Galle International Stadium on Saturday.

Chairman of selectors Tikiri Banda Kehelgamuwa and K.M.Nelson, who did not resign, will continue to hold office. Accordingly, the new national cricket selection committee to be appointed today is likely to comprise of T. B. Kehelgamuwa (Chairman), K. M. Nelson, Mahes Goonetillake, Don Anurasiri and Ranjith Madurasinghe.

Wicket keeper batsman Goonetillake represented Sri Lanka in its inaugural year in Test cricket (1982), playing five Tests and six one day internationals. Madurasinghe, a product of Kurunegala YCC, too had a brief international career of three Tests and 12 one day internationals in 1992.

But he has played in over 100 first class matches. Of the three new selectors added, Anurasiri is the most experienced in international cricket, playing in 10 Tests (41 wickets) and 45 one day internationals (32 wickets) during 1985/86 to 1997/98 with a long gap in between.

These three names, along with the name of Michael Tissera, have been submitted by the BCCSL Interim Committee after its long near three-hour meeting on Monday night. But the Sports Minister is unlikely to rush Tissera at this point of time as the former Sri Lanka batsman, currently the vice chairman of the interim administration, is to be brought as Chairman of selectors when normal appointments of national selection committees of all sports are to be made in March.

Minister Fernando is reportedly keen to bring Tissera as the selection chief, in a couple of months time with a couple of figures of the same era. Hence, the new appointments are expected to last only until March, after which Minister Fernando will make his annual appointment of national selection committees of all sports, on the recommendations of the respective national sports associations (NSAs). 

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