South Africa show our young guns still stuck in the middle
View(s):So another meaningless one-day and Twenty20 series has come to an end. Instead of playing proper Test cricket against South Africa, Sri Lanka Cricket decided to scrap that in its chase for dollars by replacing it with the more commercially viable shorter versions of the game.
And what did this three-week long exercise prove? That our youngsters are still not up to the mark and that our selectors continue to muddle their way through as they look towards building a competitive side for the next 50-overs World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2015 as well as next year’s ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh.
As the song aptly describes, we are currently in the position of: “Clowns to the left, jokers to the right, I’m stuck in the middle with you – Sri Lanka cricket.”
The clowns are the selectors who in the five-match one-day series continued to rely on giving older players another chance – Jehan Mubarak – while also experimenting with others like Jeevan Mendis who have showed little promise so far.The jokers are our crop of young players who have still not grasped the opportunities thrown their way. The most disappointing of this lot has been Kusal Perera who has had an extended stay at the top of the batting order beginning with the ICC Champions’ Trophy in England.
Kusal Janith failed to deliver the goods this series
Then there is Lahiru Thirimanne who apart from needing a bigger helmet – his headgear somehow is ludicrously small and seems to be perched on his head – also needs a dose of urgency to creep into his game. Even others like Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews, our two captains, have failed miserably with the bat in both the 50 overs and Twenty20 series.
The South African visit has underlined the fact that we continue to rely on our big three – Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillekeratne Dilshan – for runs.
All three played vital roles with the bat and were chiefly responsible for the 4-1 series win in the 50 overs. It was sad that none of the other batsmen left a lasting impression, other than Thisara Perera’s fabulous knock in a losing cause in the fourth one-dayer. His five sixes in one over were memorable and underlined his potential with the bat. Now he must learn to expand his repertoire of shots.
Sangakkara’s dismissal in the first two T20s signaled the end of Sri Lanka’s resistance. At times it looked as if it was a case of South Africa versus Sanga.
The decision to rotate the seniors in the latter series was okay given that it gave others the chance to grab the opportunity. Mahela’s absence in the first match in Colombo opened the door for Angelo Perera to be included but he failed while namesake Kusal, at the top of the order, seemed to lack the technique to play the swinging delivery outside his off stump.
Dilshan’s absence in the second game in Hambantota left Kusal Perera partnering Mahela at the top of the order but after getting a start, he couldn’t quite kick on and likewise Thirimanne, who made 18 off 18 balls before being undone by Wayne Parnell. Chandimal and Mathews failed to trouble the scorer being dismissed for 2 and 1 respectively.
Sanga was rested for the third game and it looked bleak after South Africa posted 163 runs after batting first for the third time in the series. Thankfully Dilshan and Mahela came good and the opening stand of 67 in six overs laid the foundation for a welcome victory, one which ensured that Sri Lanka stayed on top of the ICC World Twenty20 rankings. Once again it was the seniors who paved the way for victory with Dilshan remaining unbeaten with 74 off 55 deliveries.
But fat good remaining at the top of the pile for what matters is to win the big ones and Sri Lanka have made it a fine art of letting these slip away as proven by our record at World Cups in recent years.
This is tantamount to tennis where we have seen many world number ones, especially in the women’s game, who have failed to win a Grand Slam. If you ask Caroline Wozniacki what she would prefer – to be ranked world number or one or to win Wimbledon – you can bet her answer would be the latter.
Rankings are meaningless in the long run, nothing more than an ego trip for what matters are the major titles. Spain is the reigning world champions in football, but hands up for who are the top-ranked football team in the world? Okay, it is still Spain but I bet many people might have thought it was Brazil. The point is that at the end of the day, world rankings matter little and is quickly forgotten. What counts are how many world cups a country has won.
This must be the goal of Sri Lanka Cricket. Everything must be geared towards that end. And the only way to achieve that is to have a solid core of senior players with youngsters playing winning hands around them.
The last few weeks have showed that our seniors are good for many more years to come. All our youngsters should take a leaf out of their book, especially the heavy tome of Sanga’s who was a revelation having transformed his game.
Always a classical batsman, Sanga seems to have fine-tuned his game another notch by upping his tempo. His batsmanship whereby he targets vacant areas in the field is a lesson every novice should learn. The fact that he scored his first one-day 100 only in his 86th game should also be encouraging and taken to heart by the likes of Thirimanne and company.Time it seems can certainly mature a player. But time is a precious commodity with major events around the corner. As such we need the young guns stepping up quickly. This tour by South Africa, however, has shown that they have still got a long way to go.
Follow @timesonlinelk
comments powered by Disqus