WC squad was picked on players’ performance, says Pramodya

213

Sri Lanka Cricket’s Chairman of Selectors, Pramodya Wickramasinghe reported to the Sports Ministry’s Special Investigation Unit( SMSIU) for the Prevention of Sports Offences yesterday for the second day.

He was issued a summons to arrive before the Sports Ministry’s Special Investigation Unit for the Prevention of Sports Offences over a recent statement he had made concerning Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The first day on November 21 st while part of the investigations reported on first day and yesterday he has to continue his evidence with thel facts.

Actually I wanted to give all details to this Special investigation Unit. We had very successful plans short term and long term but some people wanted to tarnish our names regardihg cricket selections. We were appointed by Sports Minister and our names sent by Sri Lanka Cricket and that was the normal practice.

We always used to take collective decisions while our aim is to select best teams. We never mixed up our duties and got successful results during last Asia Cup ODI and Asia Cup T-20 tournaments where we were runners up at Asia Cup ODI and champions at Asia Cup T-20.

However when we won the games no one praised us even when we won the Asia Cup T-20 my selection committee member Hemantha Wickramaratne was with the team but no one interviewed him. But when we came back with the World Cup team from India media wanted to get interview from me and we always did our best said Pramodya.

I wanted to pointout there were issues behind the World Cup disappointed performance and we wanted to clear and if sports Minister doesn’t want our service we like to resign any time but up to now we never did wrong thing and got successful results and all selections according to players performance and their fitness, he said.

The summons were issued after former Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe had requested the Sports Ministry’s Special Investigation Unit to investigate the allegations of corruption made by Pramodya Wickramasinghe. Chairman of the Selection Committee who arrived at the special unit with his lawyer Shiral Lakthilaka.

Wickramasinghe had told the media recently that he had information on match-fixing, illegal activities, and betting related to Sri Lanka Cricket which was made after Sri Lanka World Cup team arrival at the Katunayake Airport.

Dhammika Ratnaweera Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).