By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Since 2010 Sri Lanka had 10 world class Head Coaches, whilst India had 5, England and Australia 4 each, South Africa and New Zealand 3 each and Pakistan only 2.  We hired the world best with lucrative expatriate terms to Dave Whatmore, Tom Moody, Micky Arthur, Chandika Hathurusinhe, Trevor Bayliss, Paul Farbrace, Graham Ford, Geoff Marsh.  The first mistake was the removal of 1996 World Cup Winning Coach Dav Whatmore who was replaced by Western Australian Off-Spinner Late Mr Bruce Yardley.   Bruce battled out SLC mismanagement and survived just only 2 years in   his role.

The political bickering in cricket start at the very top in Sri Lanka, that is at the Ministry of Sports.  Since 1996 we had 14 Ministers of Sports, including some colourful and dubious names such as S B Dissanayake, Mangala Samaraweera, Lakshman Kiriella, Johnston Fernando, Jeewan Kumaratunga, Gamini Lokuge, C B Ratnayake, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Navin Dissanayake, Dayasiri Jayasekera, Faizar Musthapha, Harin Fernando, Dullas Alahapperuma, Namal Rajapakse.

When Mahela and Sangakkara retired from all forms of cricket, bringing Angelow Mathews was another mistake, who has been on the Sick List most of the time.   Rangana Herath should have been rightfully given the role instead.

Dimuth Karunaratne was brought in at a time SLC was struggling the same way as it is now, but to his credit he was able to bring some sanity into the game, especially in test cricket.  Dropping Dimuth and promoting controversial Kusal Mendis to the role of vice captain is yet another blunder of the current management both at the levels of the Sports Ministry as well as at the Sri Lanka Cricket Board.

Now we need to do some breakdown of Income earned by Sri Lanka Cricket, analysed into salaries and wages, or to call loosely Labour Costs.  As a percentage, as we understand Sri Lanka Cricket spent on Labour Costs on direct cricket players just 28% of the total income from cricket, excluding overseas travel and accommodation costs.  By contrast, SLC spent some 41% on Labour Costs on Coaches and SLC management team.  There are far too many levels in the management structure of the SLC authority, with far too many people, with very little influence on the game.  These include Directors, Deputy Directors and an Army of Secretaries who are highly overpaid.

This is a cancerous situation.  A massive surgery must be carried out to save SLC.                                                                                                                        Looking at list of Ministers we had, we need to recruit a top class local Professional Cricketer to head the Ministry.  With reliable news headlines circulating in the media of a possible cabinet reshuffle, a national list slot for Arjuna Ranatunga should pave way to take over Sports Ministry.  We have used almost all world class coaches. In sports category, Cricket is a cash-cow with a distinct quick pay back and high rate on investments.  To better manage, we need to cut costs, not only the labour costs of players, but all staff, reduction of staff numbers, reduction or elimination of perks for Managers. 

Sports Ministry is a money spinner.  It must be headed by someone notoriously hard to work with.  Need to appoint such a person with decision making authority, who is knowledgeable and ruthless.