VETERAN Sri Lanka batsman Marvan Atapattu yesterday branded his country’s selectors “Muppets” and accused members of the cricket board of only being concerned with going on tours and being paid for it.

Atapattu, who turns 37 next week, lashed out as Sri Lanka faced an overwhelming defeat after three days of the first Test against Australia in Brisbane. He blamed the authorities for the debacle and criticised selection, saying: “Sri Lankan cricket is not going in the direction it should be going, especially with Muppets in the set-up and headed by a joker. If three guys [the selectors] are controlled by a joker, they will agree. They should be called Muppets.

“The selectors are only there for going on tours and getting whatever they are getting. That’s a waste of time. They are only concerned with the $150 a day they get on tour. The board has no control as these things come directly from the minister of sports and he appoints the selectors.

“If they had handled things well, we would have had good back-up but at the age of 37 and 38 people have to come and play for Sri Lanka on a tough tour like this..” Atapattu said there was no dissention in the dressing room, but added: “There are people outside creating unpleasantness.”

On the field, Australia were unwittingly doing England a favour by dominating affairs at the Gabba, and almost certainly sending the Sri Lankans home to face England next month with tails firmly between their legs. Their bold talk of challenging a new-look Australian side has died a swift and brutal death.

Yesterday it was the turn of their batsmen to suffer. Resuming their first innings on 31 for two, 520 behind, they lost Mahela Jayawardene to the 15th ball of the day, caught behind off Stuart Clark, and Thilan Samaraweera was also out inside an hour, a first Test victim for Mitchell Johnson.

The Australians, whose chase for a 13th successive Test victory has failed to arouse the interest of the Queensland public, had to chisel out each of the next three wickets, but Sri Lanka’s batsmen never got on top of some typically tight bowling.

The most Sri Lanka had to be pleased about was the return of Atapattu after almost two years away from the Test arena through a back injury and political shenanigans with the selectors. Before his outburst, the former captain battled through until the 62nd over of the innings for a painstaking 51 and was back out in the middle again a couple of hours later when Sri Lanka, who lost their last four first-innings wickets in seven overs to be all out for 211, were made to follow on 340 behind. He and Sanath Jayasuriya gave the second innings the solid start it needed if total humiliation was to be avoided by posting 53, although most of the attacking work was done by Jayasuriya, the victim of a bad first-innings decision. But both fell before the close, Atapattu for 16 and Jayasuriya – to a sharp catch at second slip by Ponting that gave Brett Lee a fifth wicket in the game – for 39.

Ponting must have debated whether to enforce the follow-on. He didn’t against England on the same ground last year and the last time Sri Lanka followed on in reply to a score of 551, against England at Lord’s in 2006, they batted out the last 14 hours of the game.

Scoreboard

(Brisbane, third day of five): Sri Lanka, with eight second-innings wickets remaining, are 260 runs behind Australia

Australia First Innings 551-4dec (M J Clarke 145no, M E K Hussey 133, P A Jaques 100, R T Ponting 56, A Symonds 53no)

Sri Lanka First Innings (o/nt 31-2) M S Atapattu c Jaques b Johnson 51
S T Jayasuriya c Gilchrist b Lee 7
M G Vandort c Gilchrist b Lee 0
*D P M D Jayawardene c Gilchrist b Clark 14
T T Samaraweera c Gilchrist b Johnson 13
L P C Silva c Clarke b Clark 40
†H A P W Jayawardene lbw b Lee 37
M F Maharoof b Symonds 21
W P U J C Vaas b MacGill 8
C R D Fernando c Johnson b Lee 7
M Muralitharan not out 6
Extras (lb 1, nb 6) 7
Total (81.5 overs) 211
Fall:1-7, 2-11, 3-45, 4-65, 5-119, 6-153, 7-181, 8-198, 9-198. Bowling: Lee 17.5-9-26-4; Johnson 18-2-49-2; MacGill 25-5-79-1; Clark 16-4-46-2; Symonds 5-3-10-1 Second Innings (following on)
S T Jayasuriya c Ponting b Lee 39
M S Atapattu c Gilchrist b Symonds 16
M G Vandort not out 15
*D P M D Jayawardene not out 8
Extras (lb 2) 2
Total (2 wkts, 22 overs) 80
Fall:1-53, 2-65. Bowling: Lee 6-2-26-1; Johnson 6-0-22-0; Clark 5-1-17-0; Symonds 1-1-0-1; MacGill 4-0-13-0. Umpires:A L Hill (NZ) and R E Koertzen (SA)

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