By Revatha S. Silva

[caption id="attachment_151590" align="alignleft" width="355"] Dinesh Chandimal has told SLC officials that he is worried about the status quo of the Sri Lanka cricket team. Selectors have asked former Skipper to perform in the domestic tournament first, for him to be considered for limited-over selection in future. Here is Chandimal (on right) with Angelo Mathews[/caption]

Former Sri Lanka Captain Dinesh Chandimal has been asked to perform first in the national domestic circuit, including the forthcoming Inter Provincial tournament, if he is to be considered for selection in the limited-over formats in future.

Chandimal met the national cricket selectors and officials of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) early last week. The meeting had been arranged following Chandimal’s written request from SLC and its technical committee the previous week clarity about his future in the national team.

Interestingly in the meeting, Chandimal has first told the officials that he is worried about the present situation of the Sri Lanka cricket team. Yet the officials, apparently unconvinced, has asked the batsman to first perform well in the forthcoming domestic tournaments if he is to be considered for the ODIs and T20Is in future.

In addition, the officials had also explained the former Skipper that, for selection of national white-ball cricket in future, he needed to be fit and also suit the plans of both the national Head Coach and present Captain Dasun Shanaka.

The officials have, though, assured Chandimal that he will anyway be considered for selection in the Test format. Sri Lanka are scheduled to engage in a Test series against Bangladesh later this year.

All the currently dropped seniors, including Angelo Mathews, Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Suranga Lakmal, and Chandimal are likely to return to national duty in the said Bangladesh Test series.

Yet, out of them, Mathews has not so far announced his availability for selection in any format citing personal commitments.