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by Sharm de Alwis

The bombshell in the sports page of your edition of 4th Jan. made incredulous reading. Atapattu dropped! Even a guy who has only played marble cricket would have the 'marbles' to know what problems the Sri Lanka team would have been faced with.

Who would have replaced the proven opening bat? Sangakkara would have been the logical choice but he has been a marvel at the one-drop slot. Would his mental equilibrium have been affected when he had to 'change horses in midstream'? Hasn't the Roshan Mahanama epic blunder of the selectors not opened their cobwebby eyes?

The other choice for a makeshift opener would have been Russel Arnold but he is already having a lean trot. A failure in the opener's berth would have brought down the morale curtains on him.

If Chamara de Silva succeeded who would have been dropped to accommodate him? If Chamara had to be brought in the obvious man to have been axed was Arnold.

Even in the world of business, acumen is common sense and that is why Nahil Wijesuriya and Michael Caderamanpulle ride high.

That the selectors had not inspected the wicket-keeper checked on the weather patterns, that they had not consulted the coach nor the captain to take an unilateral decision smacks of arrogant insanity.

Now that the Minister of Sports and the captain have scuttled their ludicrous plan and showed thereby their no confidence in the selectors the logical step before them is to step down.

Let's have performance at all levels. 

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