| Sports |
|
| Watch-out
warning sent
out to cricketers - Lankan Cricket bosses disturbed with appalling standards |
| By S.R. Pathiravithana |
 |
| If this trend continues heads may roll. (Pic by Sanka Vidanagama) |
The run of successive Lankan ODI defeats has upset the Lankan cricket hierarchy and they are in a mood to effect any changes if that is the call of the day.
On Thursday, the Lankan selectors led by Asantha de Mel sat along with Sri Lanka cricket Chief Executive Officer Duleep Mendis, Operations Manager Ashley de Silva and Marketing Manager Charith Senanayake to have an in-depth look at the appalling ODI standards that Lankan cricket has plunged into and see what remedial measures could be taken to stem the rot.
“On Thursday we met for a very cordial, but serious session of soul-searching to find out what has really gone wrong with our cricket,” Mendis told The Sunday Times.Since Sri Lanka became the runners up of the 2007 World Cup the only significant ODI achievements that they have had are the winning of the last Asia Cup in Pakistan and beating Pakistan in Pakistan. Besides these, they have beaten Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in two series but in that too they came up with a string of unimpressive and uninspiring performances, both with bat and ball.
Continuing on the current status quo in cricket a very disturbed Mendis said, “At our discussion we felt our standards have really dipped and we must take some corrective measures without any delay”.
When asked if that means that there would be any structural changes in the team composition Mendis said, “We would seriously look at even into those possibilities if the situation warrants it. As we see now the cricketers have neglected some aspects of their training and that directly has affected our performances.”
Sri Lanka’s last three ODI series played on home soil – against England and India twice have ended up in embarrassing losses.
According to another cricket insider it is most likely some changes will be effected from the Zimbabwe visit to Sri Lanka. Among the changes very likely will be the appointment of a separate ODI captain, while some of the current none performers will also not be considered for future international engagements until they prove themselves worthy of international exposure beyond any reasonable doubt from their performances in the local circuit. |
|
| |
 |
| |
 E-mail |
| |
views[1] |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
