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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

We all know what Aravinda de Silva is capable of when he has a bat or ball in his hand on the centre of a cricket field. But yesterday at the Cricket Board headquarters we saw De Silva excel in the role of a national cricket selector taking all the questions that were bounced at him by the print and electronic media with aplomb as if he was carving out another hundred for his country.

In the absence of the chairman of selectors Guy de Alwis (we were told by the Cricket Board CEO Anura Tennekoon, that he was unable to turn up because his daughter was ill and had to be taken to hospital), De Silva, who retired from cricket exactly two weeks ago, spoke like a veteran, although this was his first meeting with the media in the capacity of a selector.

De Silva and his two fellow selectors Lalith Kaluperuma and Ashley de Silva brought about a refreshing change to the media conference which went on for the best part of nearly 1 1/2 hours that the media manager experienced great difficulty in bringing it to a conclusion.

The questions centred on the team picked for the tour to Sharjah and De Silva said that in future, the selection committee which comprises five members, will make it a point to talk to the media after every selection they make.

"We want to be very transparent on selections because it is a public of 20 million people that we are representing. We don't want to put the players in an embarrassing situation. No one has asked us to pick them. We pick them on certain criteria and we want the media to support the players more than anyone else," said De Silva.

De Silva said that in picking the side to Sharjah there were many things the selectors took into consideration.

"We left Mahela (Jayawardene) out not because he can't get into the side, but to get his mind out of the game and come back fresh for the New Zealand series," said De Silva.

"He will be in the side definitely for the next series. I feel he needs a break from the game because he went through a bit of a hard time. I reckon he is the best player we've got for the next 10 years," he said.

"I feel he is a better player than me to be honest. He has got so many things to achieve in the next 10 years and to take Sri Lanka's batting all the way. A person like that needs the support from the media, not to run him down. We need to try and get these guys performing at the top level.

"Maybe they'll go through a bad period. Because the World Cup was an important tournament his failures were singled out. There was a lot of pressure on him every single game that he played. The media must understand the mental side of the players as well," De Silva said.

"We are not saying the decisions we are taking are 100 percent correct. Sometimes we gamble on a player thinking that he has a bright future, but he may not perform. Marvan (Atapattu) is a good example. He started his international career with five ducks in six innings but the selectors knew that he had the potential to develop into a good player in the future.

"The same can be said of Mahela. We should not remove him immediately. It is wrong for us to do so. Everyone goes through a bad patch.

You cannot stop it. Sometimes it may be the mental condition. It needn't be always be with cricket, there can be other personal factors which can contribute to his failure," De Silva said.

Ashley de Silva, another former Sri Lanka Test cricketer said that the selectors had not written off wicket-keeper/batsman Romesh Kaluwitharana, batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan or leg-spinning all-rounder Upul Chandana.

"Certainly we have not written off Kalu. We are seriously considering him for the New Zealand series. I feel that he's got a few more years in him and we should make maximum use of him while we are grooming another wicket keeper. We have to get the best out of the players who have done so much for Sri Lanka cricket," said Ashley de Silva.

Aravinda de Silva said that the recall of off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan after he was left out by the previous selection committee on the grounds of resting from a groin injury was to try and strenghten the bowling, which would allow the young middle order to chase totals which were within their capabilities.

"Muralitharan complained about a groin injury during the semi-final game against Australia two weeks ago. The thinking of the previous selectors was to give Murali a break because he had been playing non stop cricket for a long time," said De Silva.

"We also felt the same way. But taking into consideration the side we are sending to Sharjah where we have so many youngsters and an inexperienced batting line up, we felt that we needed some sort of experience in the bowling," he said.

"What we want is to try and strengthen the bowling so that at least the amount of runs the opposition will make will be a target which won't put too much pressure on the youngsters.

"When we are blooding the youngsters we have to make sure we don't do it hastily. We have to blood them alongside some of the seniors. In 1999 just after the World Cup, the selectors took the seniors out and put most of the youngsters in, which didn't do much for the side. The youngsters failed to develop themselves which resulted in Hashan (Tillakaratne) and me being called back.

"Had I continued from 1999, I would have probably played for another maybe six months or one year. If that had happened I wouldn't have played in this World Cup. I would have finished much earlier," De Silva said.

De Silva ruled out the view that the selectors were taking a chance by playing Muraliltharan. "If he gets injured just after one match it is simply bad luck," he said. De Silva appealed to the media not to publicise the teams until the Sports Minister had ratified it.

"The team selected by the previous selection committee should never have gone out to the press in the first place. It made our task of selecting much harder. It is unfair on the players selected if there is a change," said De Silva.

The previous selection committee comprising De Alwis and Roger Wijesuriya (who was also absent at yesterday's media meeting) picked a squad for Sharjah which comprised Tilan Samaraweera and Hasantha Fernando. But the expanded selection committee of five members appointed by the Sports Minister, replaced these two players with Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara.

De Silva said that Sangakkara has been selected as a batsman for Sharjah and that Prasanna Jayawardene will keep wickets. "We have given a certain criteria to go by to the tour selectors for Sharjah. It is upto them to pick a team suitable to the conditions," he said.

De Silva said that when he retired from international cricket he didn't think of ending up as a selector.

"I wanted some time off. But when the offer was made I thought I had to contribute to cricket in some way because cricket has given me so much in life," he said.

"I thought even for a little while to put things right, the thinking pattern or whatever which I think is very, very important. The modern thinking pattern is to try and infuse some young blood so that the next generation can continue from there," De Silva said.

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