COLOMBO, JUNE 15,
Sri Lankan cricket legend Mahela Jayawardene has rejected a request to provide consultancy services to the struggling national team, saying he has no “trust in the system”.
National selectors made a formal request Thursday to hire several legends, including Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, to a special committee advising on how to return to winning ways. Last year Sri Lanka suffered a series Test and one-day whitewash to India on home soil, lost a one-day series to bottom-ranked Zimbabwe, also held in Sri Lanka, and crashed out of the Champions Trophy early.
They were also soundly beaten in the first Test in the current tour of the West Indies last weekend and in the first innings of the second Test on Thursday were skittled for 253. Late last year, Jayawardene, 41, was appointed to a special panel to advise the then-sports minister on corrective measures. But on Thursday he said that his recommendations were ignored and that he did not want a repeat of the experience.
“I don’t have any trust in the system. If any one wants to buy time please don’t use us!” he said on Twitter. There was no immediate response from Sangakkara. Jayawardene, a former Sri Lanka captain, scored 11,814 Test runs playing in 149 matches. He also made 448 one-day international appearances, scoring a century during Sri Lanka’s defeat by India in the 2011 World Cup final in Mumbai, as well as playing in 55 T20 internationals.
