Hashan bowled out from manager’s job

Ex-cricket captain Hashan Tillekaratne was yesterday bowled out from his appointment as manager of the Sri Lanka team as Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge refused to endorse his post a day after he was introduced to the local and international media as the new manager.
The Daily Mirror learns that Minister Lokuge had expressed displeasure over what he saw as an impending political confrontation between him and Tillekeratne who is the opposition United National Party organiser for the Avissawella electorate from where the Sports Minister hails.
Lokuge is reported to have wanted Tillekaratne to choose between politics and working with the Sri Lanka team as both fields could not run parallel.
The Indian media who are in Sri Lanka to cover their team’s three-Test and five-match one-day series could not believe their ears when they heard that Tillekeratne was removed from his post a day after he was paraded in front of them at the launch of the trophy for the series.
“Yesterday you had a manager and today you don’t have a manager”, one Indian journalist is reported to have told a Sri Lankan player.
The minister is also reported to have been cut up at not being informed of Tillekaratne’s appointment after Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim committee jumped the gun and announced the new appointment to the media.
Media learns that Tillekaratne’s appointment was also made without the approval of the executive committee of the Interim Committee running cricket.
Experts argue that if Tillekaratne’s appointment was terminated by the minister the former batsman could have his image tarnished or viewed as a pawn in the hands of cricket board ‘politicians’.
Only recently did Tillekeratne beat an influential government politician Justice Minister Dilan Perera who withdrew from the contest for the top post in the Cricket Umpires Association.
Tillekeratne played in 83 Tests captaining the team in 10 while scoring over 4000 runs.
“I have played with some of the present players in the Sri Lanka team and this will make my job easy”, Tillekeratne told reporters after his appointment yesterday.