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Jayasuriya angry with Mahela, Sanga for revealing plans to media

Former Sri Lanka captain unhappy with players spilling beans

Mumbai: Sri Lanka chief cricket selector Sanath Jayasuriya erupted at Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene for making troublesome comments to media. The former batsman warned that the current senior duo might be left out of team meetings where strategies are discussed if they kept disclosing plans to public.

“Both of them have been in the team for so long that they should understand what to talk. There is no excuse for what they have done. I feel things are getting out of hand here. Revealing our plans to media cannot be justified. Our plans are supposed to be a surprise to the opponents,” an angry Jayasuriya told “Daily Mirror” on Wednesday.

“By the way things are happening; we might even have to keep them out of the meetings where plans are discussed. This is setting a dangerous precedent. What they have told media are things that we had discussed at a meeting. They were just basic ideas only. Nothing was final. When they go and tell the media as if it were all their plans, it puts us in an embarrassing situation,” Jayasuriya said.

“Those are decisions that the national selectors should take, not the players. If the players are going to do our job, what is the point of having selectors there at all?” questioned Jayasuriya.

Sangakkara apparently told media that Dinesh Chandimal should bat at number three and Lahiru Thirimanne should bat at numbers six. Jayawardene said in his media interviews stressing on opening the innings.

“The only thing I haven’t done is gone down on my knees to the selectors and asked for me to be allowed to open. I have felt that’s the position I should bat leading up to this World Cup. The selectors obviously have a different theory. Because the middle order isn’t experienced, they wanted me to be there. But every time I have opened the batting, I have played my best cricket, been consistent and controlled the game. So we’ll see. We still have three to four months before the World Cup,” Jayawardene had told Cricinfo.

Jayasuriya denied that Jayawardene requested the selectors to open the innings. Rather, he flew out to India on Friday night to have a discussion with the players.

“I flew out on Friday night to talk to the boys as our performance has obviously been a notch below their potential. I had a meeting with captain Angelo Mathews, Sangakkara, Jayawardene and coach Marvan Atapattu. There at that meeting, we discussed a few plans and setting the batting order was one of them. We all put our ideas in, and it all were discussed,” Jayasuriya said.

“But none of them were final decisions. Only I was there and I am just one selector. I could not make a commitment without consulting other selectors. I came back to Colombo on Saturday evening, but was thoroughly disappointed to read all about what we discussed in the papers,” he added.

“The players can suggest plans at discussions, but the implementation of those plans will be handled by the selectors. Discussing plans with media is not the ideal way to face the challenges,” said Jayasuriya.

( Source : dc )
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