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| Angelo Mathews --- A recruit to the national squad from Sri Lanka’s last ‘A’ team tour of South Africa. |
Hundreds of Sri Lankan cricketers including several ‘A’ team players are contemplating playing league cricket in England and other countries this year as Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has failed to arrange any tours either at home or abroad for the A team. According to SLC sources this year there may be around two hundred cricketers leaving the island to play in England or in another country.
Sri Lanka ‘A’ Players who had annual contracts with the SLC which expired last month fear that their Contracts will not be renewed this year since they have no ‘A’ team tours. On top of this the domestic season will also come to an end after next weeks Inter–Provincial Twenty-20 tournament leaving the players without any cricket for the next six months.
As an alternative to this predicament the players are looking at playing league cricket in England and other cricketing destinations. If most of the Lankan A team cricketers leave the island, Sri Lanka may be faced with a situation where they will not have any replacements to their senior team which is expected to have a heavy schedule commencing May-June.
Speaking to The Sunday Times Sri Lanka Crickets Operations Manager Ashley De Silva admitted that there are no tours arranged for the A team this year. However De Silva said that SLC is looking at arranging an A team tour towards the end of the year to Australia, New Zealand or South Africa. According to De Silva around 200 club cricketers may leave to play cricket overseas this year.
Ironically this may be the first time that Sri Lanka’s second string players will not have a single tour during an entire year, thus depriving these players of valuable experience and exposure before stepping into the big league.
While the International Cricket Council (ICC) arranges the future tours programme (FTP) for the senior teams of all test playing countries, it is up to the respective cricket boards to arrange tours for their A teams. However for reasons best known to SLC’s past Administration no such tours have been arranged this year.
Generally as a practice 2-3 tours are organized annually by all test playing countries for their A teams. Then certain countries send their A teams a few months before their senior teams tour that Country. This helps countries to identify A team players who excel in those conditions. Consequently these players are drafted into the senior team, when the senior team tours that country.
According to selection sources from Sri Lanka’s last ‘A’ team tour of South Africa, the national selectors drafted opening batsman Tharanga Paranavithana, allrounder Angelo Mathews and Suranga Lakmal into the senior squad, but with huge gaps like this how would the selectors pick up young players at short notice.
With the Sri Lanka team ageing and replacements already not forthcoming one wonders what the future holds for the game which incidentally is in the hands of an ever changing set of Administrators who are more interested in fulfilling their own ambitions rather than the islands cricketers and its fans?
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