Goldilocks is the heart-throb of the new millennium. Not only with his naughty boyish looks, but, also with his sling arm express deliveries Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga has proved that he is the next generation of International Class fast bowler that Sri Lankan possesses.
Right at this moment Lankan cricket is at crossroads. Faithful servants over one and a half decades – Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas - who really opened the doors for Sri Lanka to prevail upon their opponents relentlessly in the post 1996 era. Whenever fit, they both played the longer version and the shorter version of the game and so much so together they have bagged 1155 Test Wickets and 917 ODI wickets making it a total 2072 opposing wickets bagged in the name of Sri Lanka.
Now the dusk is falling upon the two classy champions and it is time for Sri Lanka to look for the next generation of bowlers who can keep them on that pedestal.
Though Murali still exists in the shorter version of the game and Vaas too is in the fray in the same form of the exercise, both champions are lost forever in the longer version of the game.
This is the point where Lasith Malinga comes into the equation. In fact Malinga is a thinking bowler who is always on the lookout to outwit his opponent. Towards that besides his 145+ slingers he has developed the slower ball, the slow bouncer, the yorker, etc along with a mind to read the batsman. So, he is a successful bowler.
The last Test match that Sri Lanka effectively won was against the World No 1 India whom they beat by an easy 10 wickets which earned Murali his 800th Test wicket in his swan song. In that game the Malinga-Murali duo formed a lethal combination and was responsible for fifteen out of the twenty Indian wickets to fall in that game. Malinga’s share was seven wickets.
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| Goldilocks is the heart-throb |
In the same game Chanaka Welagedera, who was not so effective, bagged a wicket each in the two innings in 21 overs.
That was in the game where Sri Lanka also had Muttiah Muralitharan.
In the next game Malinga was missing and the Lankan attack went for 707 runs and the pace duo Dhammika Prasad and Dilhara Fernando bowled 53.2 overs giving away 217, but failed to bag a single wicket.
In the third Test against India Malinga was back, bowled 42 overs for 168 runs and took three wickets. Chanaka Welagedera – the fast bowler at the other end bowled 23.3 overs for 122 runs without a wicket.
Come the Windies tour, the pace combination was yet again new. This time it was Dhammika Prasad and Thilina Thushara Mirando. The combination in that game bowled 51 overs for 195 runs, but yet again without a single wicket. So when you take the bill from the First Test against India till the first test against the West Indies the other fast bowlers than Malinga have bowled 148.5 overs for 646 runs and taken two wickets.
Though not taken in for this equation, there was some grace when the new combination of Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Kulasekera bagged a wicket each in the first quarter of the West Indian innings in the second Test at the Premadasa Stadium.
Now from the inside of the selection room we hear that Lasith Malinga has become one of the players who is shying away from Test cricket. An insider confessed the other day. “I feel so angry. Whenever we need Malinga to play in a Test match there comes an injury shield for him. He is the only bowler in our camp who can get wickets on a regular basis, but, ironically he is reluctant to take part in the longer version of the game.”
We learn when the central contracts were offered Malinga was put on a lower slot because he was engaged only in one aspect of the game. Then upon his protests he was elevated to the top slot with the promise of him taking part in the longer version of the game if and when necessary. But, yet again the personnel in the hierarchy are frustrated by his reluctance to play Test cricket.
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| Malinga... the thinking bowler. |
Then we can take the case of Thilan Samaraweera. He came into the Test reckoning as an off spinner even when Muralitharan was very much alive in the longer version of the game. But, as his batting clicked he dropped his bowling altogether and he is a wicket taking off-spinner by all means. Maybe when things were going wrong in the first Test against the West Indies, skipper Sangakkara would have welcomed a few Samaraweera overs.
However the Samaraweera and Malinga cases have two different equations. Samaraweera puts 100% on his batting just to cement his place in the side. Like Aravinda de Silva of yesteryear, if Samaraweera has a clean slate, may be he would have turned his arm over more regularly.
But, what is Malinga’s episode? Is he is in the Ritchie Rich club or aspiring to be there. Is cricket only a vehicle for money making. An injury while playing a Test match which certainly is more arduous than a ODI or an T20 would keep him away from a cash rich tournament like the Indian Premier League.
We all know there is a new breed of world cricketers who have opted to take that road. But, it is up to each individual to select what is more important and valuable for him and we all hope that Malinga is well focussed on representing Sri Lanka.
Then just before the West Indian cricketers arrived in Sri Lanka the West Indian newspaper Sunday Stabroek read out -- BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Ernest Hilaire expected there would have been players unwilling to sign the West Indies Cricket Board’s central retainer contracts.
Incumbent West Indies captain Chris Gayle, as well as all-rounder Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard stunned the region and the cricket World over the last two weeks, when they chose not to accept WICB central contracts.
Outside of sporadic appearances for West Indies and in regional cricket, they have all opted to shop their skills around to the highest bidder in lucrative domestic leagues around the World. |
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