In the aftermath of that fateful day, my sixteen-year-old niece received an SMS from one of her friends. It read, “What did Malinga have for dinner today? He ate the freaking match.” Then elsewhere in Sri Lanka two young lads, who could not come to terms with the loss of face after Sri Lanka’s weak-kneed [...]

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It’s now or never

Lanka’s cricket after T-20 debacle
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In the aftermath of that fateful day, my sixteen-year-old niece received an SMS from one of her friends. It read, “What did Malinga have for dinner today? He ate the freaking match.” Then elsewhere in Sri Lanka two young lads, who could not come to terms with the loss of face after Sri Lanka’s weak-kneed defeat, committed suicide by hanging themselves, while another pregnant mother died of a heart attack in Nawala. This was how some of the twenty million plus Lankan citizens reacted.

It was a debacle which is hard to swallow. For a moment an entire nation (besides one of my colleagues who is a Caribbean convert) was in dead silence. Yet, as a proud cricketing nation, we must not keep sulking. We must stand up and take a count of things to come and note, “Where from here?” Keep asking questions from ourselves and go inward and also ask,” Are we good enough?”

The episode began in the Caribbean in 2007, when the Lankans, against all odds, came to the finals to take on the high-riding Aussies and there a man called Adam Gilchrist, who had failed through the tournament, came out and took the game away from the Lankans in style. That was in the 50-over version of cricket and it was the World Cup.

Then in 2009, the Lankans under Kumar Sangakkara surprised the rest of the world in the second T-20 World Championships by entering the finals and there a man named Shahid Afridi, who had also failed throughout that tournament, batted like a Trojan horse in the final and took the game away from the Lankans.

Come 2011, the Lankans had come to the World Cup final in style. Then batting first, the Lankans scored a commendable 274 for 6 and then reduced the home team India to 31 for 2 with the dangerous Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar back in the hut. But a man named Mahendra Singh Dhoni had other ideas. He promoted himself in the batting order, scored an unbeaten 91 and dumped Sri Lanka in the bin.

In 2012, T-20 championship came to Sri Lanka and as expected the Lankans reached the final in spite of a near hicup against New Zealand. The West Indies’ catalyst was ‘Gangnam’ Gayle. The entire focus was on this left hander. But, the Lankans made him struggle and look out of depth. But the equally good Marlon Samuels took the visitors to somewhat safe ground, and let the Sri Lankans commit hara-kiri.

There is no argument the Sri Lankan cricketers are big-time players. Throw a challenge at them, they take it up. But now the process of ending up second best is becoming a habit.

Now down to more serious stuff. Yes, in the aftermath of the debacle, skipper Mahela Jayawardena duly stepped down from the pedestal. Was that the right thing to do? There is no doubt Mahela right now is the best cricket captain that Sri Lanka do possess. If he was disillusioned by the end result of this endeavour it was all but right that he resigned from this position. But, he also could have stated that he was not going to be a part of the T-20 business anymore. But, he reserved his right to be selected as a player. We beg to ask was this because of the IPL dollars? Besides that he also has stated that he would take stock of his position in the other forms of the game after the coming Australian tour. So, these statements of skipper Mahela should be taken very seriously.

From the 2007 outing, there are four players who have been a constant part of the Lankan playing eleven. They are Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara, T.M. Dilshan and Lasith Malinga. A very powerful quartet, indeed.

The stunned Sri Lankan cricketers were just spectators at the awards ceremony after the T20 finals

Yet, they have proved another factor too. Even with their finesse and experience, they do not know the art of icing the cake.
Then if one does not learn from his mistakes and keeps committing them repeatedly the entire exercise becomes wasted. The next question that pops into our minds is, “Is it the Lankans or the South Africans who should be tagged as the “Chokers of world cricket?” At least the South Africans still have not reached a final of a World Cup or the T-20 World Championship. But Sri Lanka have been in four such situations in the recent past and have failed miserably.

Then for the officialdom there are a few tasks at hand. Now it is no secret that they are planning structural changes in the cricket format in Sri Lanka, beginning from the school level. They even have got the assistance of former ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat to help them in this exercise. So why can’t they make a futuristic plan? They could plan for the future and go for the future.

In 2014, the next T-20 championship will be worked off in Bangladesh. Forget it, Sri Lanka cannot win that championship because they will be playing under a new captain who would still be raw. And over that captain there will be four seniors out of which three have been former national captains playing in the team. Then this junior captain will be under constant pressure unless he becomes a strong personality who could handle pressure from within the team and outside of it.

The next big event will arrive in 2015 – the Cricket World Cup in Australia. When the Aussie Big One arrives these four senior individuals would be on the weaning side of the game with their ages and their hand-eye coordination in question. The youngest out of the seniors, Lasith Malinga, would be 32, but would he by then be the same bowler with the batsmen around the world beginning to thump him from now. Then the three seniors Mahela Jayawardena Kumar Sangakkara and T.M. Dilshan who would be 38, 37 and 38 in age respectively would be among the senior citizens of the spectacle.

Some really feel even the 39-year-old great Sachin Tendulkar should have retired from cricket at the end of the 2011 World Cup and — at present, he is pondering such a move.

Then the selectors must ascertain if the next-in-line Angelo Mathews is capable of handling the pressure of leading the national side and also having four world-renowned seniors above him. If he is going to be Ball Boy for the seniors, it is useless; they might as well leave the position among the seniors, until such time as they decide to retire. Ironically in this era, cricketers do not retire from cricket because they need to play in the IPL.

It is now that the officialdom must think of the change and look inward. The decisions may not be popular and sometimes may be hard to take. But, the thing up for survival is Sri Lanka cricket, and we must think and build a side that can bring home a trophy even on a future date.

 




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