Good morning Mr. Selector!
Akila Dananjaya
Way back in 1975 when Sri Lanka getting ready to host the mighty West Indies led by Clive Lloyd, the Sri Lankan Cricket Board organized two trial matches to select the final XI. For the second trial match the then Nalanda skipper the late Anura Ranasinghe – a talented all-rounder was selected to play. If my memory is right Anura arrived in Colombo on the morning of the match from Jaffna where he was leading Nalanda in school match and went on the score a magnificent century in the match. When Anura reached his half-century a spectator who was seated near the VIP enclosure where the selectors and the Board Officials were seated at the Colombo Oval got up from his seat the told the selectors “Thank you gentlemen for opening your eyes.”
Present Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena should be commended for introducing school boy Akila Dhananjaya Perera for the T20 tournament to play for his side as an off-spinner. “Thank You Mahela for awaking the selectors”. This may be the first time that a team was selected including players who were not in the final pool. Once again the selectors should be thanked for selecting Dilshan Munaweera who had been knocking at the door without any response.
Till Mahela discovered Dhananjaya no body seems to be interested in finding a permanent replacement for the retired legendary off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. In my opinion Dhananjaya should be brought under the wings of Murali to nurture him to become a world class bowler. It is fairly OK for the time being to play this young lad in some matches of the ongoing tournament to get rid of his nervousness in big cricket. It is more worth for Sri Lanka to reserve him mainly for the Test Matches and for a few ODIs. Dilshan on the other hand a batsman with a good eye and nippy footwork should easily be a right choice to be an opener.
As most of the senior Sri Lankan players are nearing their “Naughty Forties” when the next World Cup round the corner it is high time to find suitable replacements for them like Mahela’s find in Dhananjaya.As Sri Lanka is a small country the selectors and the coaches should go round the country and find raw talent rather than sitting in air-conditioned rooms and selecting teams on newspaper reports and past performances. Competitive cricket is been played all over the country even in the then conflicted areas and it is good to form a pool of talented youngsters and groom them now onwards rather than playing “Blue Eyed” boys who fails regularly.It will not be late even now onwards to groom a set of youngsters for the next World Cup and afterwards or otherwise Sri Lanka will have to play some “40 Club” members in the coming world competitions.
Lakshman Ranasinghe
Nawala
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