Dinesh Chandimal Looks For Clarity From Sri Lanka Cricket Board About His International Future
Former Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal has sought clarity and proper directions when it comes to his international career in the future from the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) board and its technical committee. This comes in the aftermath of the recent contracts saga.
The majority of Sri Lankan players had refused to sign the new central contracts which saw the wages of senior players like Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, and Dimuth Karunaratne being cut drastically and some of them only offered pay as you play wages especially for players who would just appear in Test cricket.
SLC and its technical committee comprising of Aravinda de Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan, and Roshan Mahanama had announced forming a new Sri Lankan team with a focus on youth and fitness keeping the 2023 World Cup in mind. This new contract contracts scheme proved to be unpopular with the senior players in particular.
After a long contracts stand-off, though, SLC withdrew the annual contracts they had offered basically as a punishment for rejecting the contracts in the first place, which left Test-only players like Chandimal without income from the board for the majority of this year.
My Performance Statistics And My Health Statistics Indicate I Am More Than Capable Of Performing At The Highest Level At The Moment: Dinesh Chandimal
Dinesh Chandimal, 31, has played 62 Tests, 149 ODIs, and 57 T20Is for Sri Lanka, after making his debut in 2010 and is a former captain in all three formats. He has 4158 runs in Tests with 11 centuries, 3698 runs in ODIs with 4 centuries, and 868 runs in T20s with 5 half-centuries.
In his letter, Chandimal outlined his playing statistics across all three formats, and compared his numbers with those of former greats before the age of 30, though he is himself 31.
Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal (Image Credit: Twitter)
“The past greats of Sri Lanka cricket have shown that 2nd half of the career is where greater performances are made. My performance statistics and my health statistics indicate I am more than capable of performing at the highest level at the moment,” Chandimal wrote in his letter.
Chandimal doesn’t have a secured place in Mickey Arthur’s reign as head coach, as Sri Lanka has tended not to pick him for limited-overs cricket due to his modest strike rate. His Test numbers are comparatively better than most, but he has been dropped from SL XI for the most recent series against Bangladesh. Chandimal last made a Test century in mid-2018 and has averaged 22.43 across 25 innings since.
Excerpts from Chandimal’s letter:
“This letter contains facts on my past performance in cricket and performance of other past players. My only intention of stating these facts is to make you understand my position and your organization’s vision of my future.
Based on these statistics, I personally feel I have been grossly vindicated of selection to represent the country I adore in both white ball and test cricket.
Going beyond my player statistics, my compliance towards health and fitness and my ethical standards towards SLC have been of the highest caliber. I have always demonstrated outstanding team player skills. In my career, every decision I have made was always by putting my country and team, first sometimes with dire consequences for me personally.
Since my school days my only dream, intention, and love has been and will continue to be, to play for my country at a professional level. The ad-hoc nature over my selection over the last couple of years has caused me much stress and has subsequently affected my cricket. As a past cricketer, you would understand that selection consistency and selector’s trust in players is a must to perform on the field.
“The past greats of Sri Lanka cricket have shown that 2nd half of the career is where greater performances are made. Then why are those very people not seeing the value at this juncture in me?
My conclusion here is that as mentioned before, my age of 31 years is not a factor for performance. My performance statistics and my health statistics indicate I am more than capable of performing at the highest level at the moment.
I sincerely appreciate a response to this letter along with my humble request for a meeting with you along with the current selection committee.
I am certain given the opportunity, I will be able to perform as expected and contribute to Sri Lanka cricket in a positive manner. I would like to discuss my future with Sri Lanka cricket and as this is my profession, at this juncture it is very important for me to make the correct and most informed decisions for my future.”
