A recent Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) document has shed some light on SLC’s mysterious sacking of Geoff Marsh as national coach in 2012 just three months into a two year contract in 2012. It received criticisms from all cylinders even from former Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga called it “unprofessional” and “disgraceful”.
In a letter sent two months ago on November 26, 2014 to the Auditor General, SLC Chief Executive Ashley de Silva has revealed that Marsh was sacked due to pressure from national players.
De Silva has informed the Auditor General that “the captain at that time T.M. Dilshan made an official complaint about Mr. Marsh when the team arrived back from the UAE. At the time that the Sri Lanka team was in the UAE playing Pakistan, the Australian team was in South Africa and Mr. Marsh’s son Shaun Marsh was representing Australia on that tour. There were “rumblings” in the team at that time that Mr. Marsh was watching his son playing in South Africa on the computer and paying less attention to the ongoing Sri Lanka matches. These concerns were transmitted back to Sri Lanka by both official and unofficial means and certain print media also carried these stories.”
De Silva had also revealed that not all the players but the “senior players” were worried about a “conflict of interest” for Marsh in the team’s series against Australia as two sons of Marsh were representing Australia.
“With the stories about Mr. Marsh’s lack of attention towards the Sri Lanka team gathering momentum and considering the next tour was to Australia for which team his son was playing and many senior players expressing their concerns about a conflict of interest on his part, the Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket decided that he should no longer be retained as the coach and hurriedly commenced a head hunt and selected Mr. Graham Ford to be appointed the Coach commencing from the tour of Australia. Sri Lanka Cricket decided that this was the best course of action it could take considering the turmoil within the team resulting in the captain resigning and the players having diverse views on the sacking of Mr. Marsh, a situation which could affect team unity,” added de Silva.
De Silva had informed this to an audit query from the Auditor General who pointed out that “SLC had paid more than Rs. 6.4 million as remuneration and other expenses to Marsh, then another Rs. 4.7 million as salary for another three months upon his removal before paying another Rs. 15.4 million as compensation to settle the litigation case filed by Marsh for the breach of employment contract.”