By P. Karunakharan, IANS,
Colombo : Sri Lanka’s sports minister is set to intervene in the selection of the national team for the upcoming Twenty20 tournament in Canada, after receiving a complaint from a player who has been left out, officials here said Saturday.
Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge said that young batsman Indika de Saram met him Friday and complained that he had been unfairly left out of the list of squad for the Canada Cup, the four-nation 20/20 tournament next month, despite his good performance in the local competitions.
“I also found that his name was not in the list for the Canada tournament when the list came for my approval. I will take up his issue with the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) selection panel Monday,” Minister Lokuge told IANS.
Lokuge said he had already sent back the list of the squad as the selection panel had failed to nominate a manager for the tour.
“I will go through this issue by Monday and find an amicable solution,” he said.
An SLC official said the final list of the squad for the Canadian tour was sent to the minister earlier this week for his approval before it could be released officially.
Although media reports said the team would be without senior players like Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, there was no official confirmation on this.
Canada, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Zimbabwe will play in the series Oct 10-13.