• Top Player Manager part of the drinking party
• How can a Player Manager spend the night in Assistant Coach’s room a night before vital game?

At least five leading players – three top-order batsmen, one a veteran fast-bowler and a world-renowned all-rounder – are said to have been involved in a late-night drinking session inside one of their hotel rooms on the night before the important Sri Lanka versus South Africa World Cup game in the US last month.

The group had reportedly included a newly-appointed Assistant Coach and a leading Player Manager who manages as many as eight leading players in the current side.

How is it that a Player Manager can enter the national team hotel in the first place, perhaps breaching the organiser ICC’s rules and regulations?

The Manager’s involvement in Sri Lanka’s cricket has been a menace that is considered to have partly caused Sri Lanka’s recent downfall.

It is widely believed that local cricket authorities need to look at this phenomenon seriously if they are to revive Sri Lanka’s cricket.

With such drinking sessions going into the early hours of the next day, just before significant World Cup matches, how can a team be expected to do their duty?

It is also alleged that the responsible authorities had wanted to report this drinking incident in the tour report. However, a current Senior Adviser had reportedly instructed them not to do so.

The way Sri Lanka played the particular South Africa game could create realistic doubts over their ingenuity and commitment, fans widely alleged after the match.

Also, the same Adviser who is said to have instructed that the drinking incident not be included in the tour report, had to blame three senior players of the side when they had gone missing and arrived late for the flight at the Qatar Airport en route to Colombo.

This unhealthy situation is believed to have led Head Coach Chris Silverwood to not accept his contract renewal through the forthcoming India series.

Another team Assistant Coach, Naveed Nawaz, also terminated his contract with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to grab another stint with the Bangladesh national structure following Sri Lanka’s World Cup downfall.

If the authorities appoint an impartial committee to investigate Sri Lanka’s recent World Cup campaign, it could potentially uncover a host of issues within the Sri Lanka cricket fraternity