Sri Lanka's cricket board has named a new seven-man selection committee, headed by former fast bowler Ashantha de Mel.

The new panel, expanded and ratified by the Sri Lanka government, was increased from four to seven members with only former chairman Lalith Kaluperuma retained from the previous committee.

The other members are recently-retired seam bowler and coach Pramodya Wickramasinghe, former Sri Lanka spinners Ranjith Madurasinghe and Don Anurasiri plus K.M. Nelson and Shabbir Asgerally.

Board vice-president and former Sri Lanka batting great Aravinda de Silva, who has been an influential selector for the last year, made himself unavailable for the new panel.

The committee's first task will be to appoint a squad for the two-Test series against Australia that starts on July 1 in Darwin.