In a live online video interview held yesterday (24th) exclusively with NewsWire, Sri Lanka’s former captain and legendary batsman Mahela Jayawardena answered a number of questions that have been puzzling the Sri Lankan cricket fans for a long time.
One of such questions was that why doesn’t former Sri Lankan cricketers do not enter the cricket administration or show no interest in it, meanwhile other cricketing nations have set examples and got great progress after getting their former players to take a lead in cricket administration in their respective countries.
In reply, Mahela said that the Sri Lanka Cricket structure is different and designed in such a way that it is not easy to get into it because it is an Election based system. “I don’t firmly believe that cricketers should get into administration. But I think they can always help with the cricketing part, how it should be shaped. In other countries, those who are appointed maybe good administrators themselves. But just because you’re a past cricketer, I don’t think that you can become an administrator, because you need much more experience and various other things to do that”, he said.
He also made it a point to elaborate as to why it is difficult for an “outsider” to get into cricket administration in Sri Lanka, particularly because of the voting system and the need to be part of a group that contests the election or to be nominated by a club.
