Sri Lanka Cricket today in a release responded to the statement made by Mahela Jayawardena alleging that the Secretary and CEO of SLC had criticized Jayawardena’s decision to retire from T20 cricket.  SLC as an institution regrets such unsubstantiated accusations leveled against the Secretary and CEO, by a Senior member of the National Team without verifying the facts, the release added.

 

Excerpts of release;

 

At the Press Conference held on April 09, 2014, at the Bandaranaike International Airport to celebrate the National team’s victory during the ICC World T20 2014 Championship, National Cricketer Mahela Jayawardena stated that the Hony. Secretary and CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket had directly engaged with the media through their own channels criticizing Mr. Jayawardena’s supposed decision to retire from the Twenty/20 format of the game.

 

Sri Lanka Cricket would like to categorically state that neither the Hony. Secretary nor the CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket had volunteered any statement to the Press regarding Mahela Jayawardena’s decision to address the media regarding his apparent retirement from the T20 format of Cricket save for the CEO’s comment cited in a newspaper article of March 18, 2014, stating “We have seen the media reports but we don’t know how accurate they are because we would naturally expect the players to communicate such an important decision to SLC first. So far, they haven’t informed us that they have taken such decisions.”. The said article further refers to a statement made by Mr. Sanath Jayasuriya, Chairman of the National Selection Committee, personally expressing his point of view purely from a Selectors perspective. However, the Hony. Secretary of SLC has made no statement whatsoever to any media personnel in this connection.

 

Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to inform the members of the media that in all matters of such nature , SLC considers such statements as damaging to both the image of the institution and the officials concerned, as the Player had further implied that the alleged statements made to the Press by the SLC Officials could have had a detrimental effect on the state of mind of the Player prior to such an important tournament and may have caused the player to lose focus thus potentially impacting his mind frame and the outcome of the game in a negative manner.

 

In closing, Sri Lanka Cricket, as an institution, regrets such unsubstantiated accusations leveled against the Hony. Secretary and CEO, by a Senior member of the National Team without verifying the facts at a public forum; a Sportsman whom we hold in the highest esteem as both a Former National Captain as well as a Brand Ambassador for the Nation.

Sri Lanka Cricket will make no further releases on this subject matter and shall treat this matter as closed.