The Sports Ministry has confirmed that a new Cricket Selection Committee under Upul Tharanga will be appointed soon officially replacing the Selection Committee headed by Promodya Wickremesinghe.

According to Sports Ministry sources, Sri Lanka Cricket has nominated 10 names for the National Cricket Selection Commission as per the required law, with the names of previous selectors Pramodya Wickremesinghe, Romesh Kaluwitharana and Hemantha Wickremaratne as the main nominees.

Disregarding the names of the previous selection committee, Sports Minister Harin Fernando yesterday announced in Parliament that he will appoint a new committee headed by Upul Tharanga going with the global trend of appointing recently retired cricketers for selection roles.

Pakistan recently appointed 38-year-old Wahab Riaz as the Chief Selector, while 37-year-old Luke Wright serves as the England Cricket Selector, both having played first-class cricket until recently.

According to Ministry sources, Ajantha Mendis, Dilruwan Perera and Tharanga Paranavithana are likely to partner with Upul Tharanga in the new Selection Committee which will be appointed for two years.

Upul Tharanga who retired from International Cricket in 2020 has played nearly 300 international games for Sri Lanka, scoring nearly 9,000 runs with 18 hundreds.

If the official appointment is made, Upul Tharanga & Co will have to pick the Sri Lanka side for the ODI & T20I series in January against Zimbabwe at home.