22 April 2014 07:38 pm
Sat, Apr 12, 2014
at 12:40 PM
To: Mahela Jayawardena
Cc: Ashley De Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya
Dear Mahela,
I have been brooding over your comments at the Airport Press Conference and feel constrained to write to you as your Manager.
I have always been a great fan of yours, as you well know, and as a cricketer deservedly so. I also considered you a Gentleman sportsman.
Whatever your feelings about certain people and theirs about you, you had no business to make the unsubstantiated comments you made that day.
It was an occasion to celebrate a great victory and you and Sanga were honored to share the head table with the Captains.
You brought the Event, the Victory, SLC, and yourselves into shame and disrepute by your pettiness. If you are a gentleman you owe an apology to all concerned.
Sincerely,
Michael.
Sent from my iPad
Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 2:48 PM
To: Michael De Zoysa
Cc: Ashley De Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sanga
Dear Micheal (sic),
It’s with great displeasure and disappointment that I read this email from you.
The remarks I made was to a question that I was asked by the local media and you or the SLC media should have briefed them before it started. In Bangladesh you of all people agreed with me that comments made by CEO / secretary and Sanath was baseless and out of order and that I did not announce my retirement. You were the one who wanted me and Kumar to speak to Sanath and sort it out.
Having spoken to him he was told by SLC secretary that we have announced our retirement. He wanted us to say nothing till the World Cup was over. If at all it’s they who should apologise to me and Kumar and be more PROFESIONAL (sic) in handling things going forward.
It’s sad to see that you telling us one thing in Bangladesh and taking a u-turn after coming back to Sri Lanka.
Regards,
Mahela
Sent from my iPhone
Date: 2014, April 12 8:17:37 pm GMT+5:30
Dear Mahela,
I have taken the liberty to respond to the email copied to me, as I have been unnecessarily implicated in what seems to be some other issue. The comment you have made about what I said was “baseless”, does not hold water as when like you I was asked by the media if I had been informed of your retirement. I honestly answered that. I was surprised as you had not intimated any such thing either to me or to the board which was the truth, prior to what you had spoken either as a response to a question posed by the press or what you wanted to communicate to the press.
As far as speaking to Kumar and yourself and in fact any member of the team you will know that my intentions have always been above board in trying to sort out whatever issues the team has faced.
Therefore I am somewhat taken aback that you would say my comments are “baseless” when actually they were factual as you had not informed me of your decision prior to announcing it in the press whatever the reasons my role as Chairman selectors remains is to work towards the best interest of the team and its welfare ,therefore I suggest l am not implicated in a negative light to suit various purposes which have nothing to do with me.
Sanath
Sent From my iPhone
Sat Apr 12, 2014 at 3:15 PM
To: Mahela Jayawardena
Cc: Ashley De Siva, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sanga
Dear Mahela,
I never said anyone’s comments were baseless! What I said was you cannot assume what the paper says is said by them. The paper only quoted Sanath and Ashley actually defended you if you read the article properly. Furthermore to avoid any controversy I banned you and Sanga from speaking to the press until the tour was over so that all could concentrate on the cricket at hand.
In fact at the very first press conference thereafter I announced twice to the press that no questions on retirement would be entertained. For this the same writer said I was rude to the press and not acting as an ambassador! So much for the accuracy of his writing!
Can you please tell me how I can brief the press when we all got off a plane together!
Yes I did want you to speak to Sanath and sort it out and whilst I am not privy to that conversation I assumed you had done so and sorted it out. If that was the case, you have handled press conferences for years, you should have known better how to handle any question on our return.
You should be disappointed with yourself, you let yourself down, and it is you who have to apologise for unsubstantiated accusations.
I don’t take U turns, many times I told you to leave the matter alone! Enough said if you have a conscience let it prick you,
Sincerely,
Michael.
Sent from my iPad
Dear Mahela
I am actually very disappointed at the turn of events in this whole matter.
What you cannot change is the fact that you took away what should have been a Glorious moment for the World Cup winning team by your actions at the post win press conference. Also bear in mind it was you who said it was to be your last T20 which to me means the same thing as your retirement. In which case it is quite high handed of you to assume that anyone else other than you had to keep the establishment and Selectors informed of your decision or sort any matters out. How you seem to be blaming everyone around when you yourself decided to make such a statement is beyond me. Furthermore to expect that if anything was to be sorted out it was anyone else’s duty to do so is quite absurd. It is your duty to go through the proper channels when making such serious decisions that will affect the team. You are too much of a professional not to have realised that.
Therefore you should be taking responsibility for your actions and words and as I said at the beginning this will go down in the history books as an incident that marred the T20 post win press conference for the team which you should take responsibility for.
Sanath
Sent from my iPhone