Sri Lankan pacer Chanaka Welegedera decides to move out to Australia

Sri Lankan pacer Chanaka Welegedera decides to move out to Australia: In a rather bold move, Sri Lankan pacer Chanaka Welegedera has decided to relocate to Australia. With the recent turn of events not favouring this Lankan seamer, Welegedera took this firm decision after being repetitively ignored by the national selectors. The final call by him however, was taken only after he was not considered for the recent home series against Pakistan.

Chanaka captained the ‘Tamil Union’ team last year, which is one of Sri Lanka’s leading clubs. Suresh Murugaser, Vice President and Chairman of the club said it was an emotional moment for the club to bid adieu to their last year’s premier league’s captain. The club had hosted a farewell dinner for Wele on Monday night. Suresh added that it was unfortunate that the national selectors preferred the younger options over Chanaka and that Welegedera has decided to pursue his cricketing career in Melbourne, where he will be playing club cricket. Suresh put this information upon his Facebook page.

Murugesar further added that, “Another reason is that he wanted to give his family the benefit of living and growing up in Australia. Watch this space, as there are quite a few Sri Lankan cricketers who could emulate Wele in the years to come. A lot of them have already applied for citizenship there”.

This statement might be alarming for the future of Sri Lankan cricket and the selectors will have to introspect regarding the process for sure. 34-year old Welegedera has played 21 tests, 10 ODIs and 2 T20Is for Sri Lanka, taking 55, 15 and 1 wicket(s) respectively in the formats.

When contacted about the decision he has made, this is what Welegedera had to say – “Selectors called me last evening and asked me to turn up for practices with Sri Lanka A team. I think they must have got the news of my move and suddenly remembered about me”.