Running down the wrong lane with junior cricket
View(s):As Sri Lankans we always go to raptures on how vibrant our school cricket is and how good and mature our cricket at that age group is. Then at the same time we wonder why Sri Lankans — nurtured by this unique school cricket system which has a history of over one hundred years and a system that had produced Test cricketers right through the gates of respective schools — have failed to win the ICC Under-19 World Cup. If there is a flaw in our system, has anyone down the line even stopped, stood still and looked over their shoulders to see where we have gone wrong and whether the prevailing system is strong enough to produce a team that can win a World Cup of that age group.
Will they end up as future stars of Sri Lanka or mere comets, that make brief appearances on and off? - Pic by Amila Gamage
Let’s pause and look inwards. There is no argument that our school cricket system is unique, incomparable and has its own roots which runs deep into Lankan soil. At the same time it is from this base that a cricketer is supposed to mature and begin to graduate to the real International call. Yet, at the same time at that age group the real call may be different?
The Lankan school cricket system is vibrant and well followed. Those among us who have held a bat in our lives and some others who have had the opportunity of representing their school at any level are still proud of that fact and savour every moment of it. At the same time it is because of our vibrant teen game that the Club Cricket system was stabilised. This combined system has gradually cascaded down the line through the past one hundred years and more but is still the same. This is where we have to pause once again ask: Are we on the right track? Is there an alternate system that could take our junior cricket to a higher level and, if so, how are we going to adopt it without killing the school cricket segment, which is also a driving force in our cricket?
The biggest drawback in the system is that Sri Lanka Cricket – the custodian of the game — has very little control over the prevailing junior cricket system in the country. It comes under the auspices of the Ministry of Education where cricket is only another school extracurricular activity aimed at building students’ character and help them enter society as better citizens.So to run the sport of cricket on behalf of the Ministry of Education, the task is entrusted with Sri Lanka School Cricket Association (SLSCA), obviously manned by school teachers who are only engaged in it on a voluntary basis. The main occupation of those gentlemen who volunteer to run the game of cricket in school is to teach. They are paid a stipend by the government to teach a given subject/subjects to schoolchildren. Besides, and once again, obviously a majority of those who volunteer to become masters-in-charge of cricket have not played the game at a recognised level and therefore are not competent enough to become decision makers of the sport under any circumstances.
Yet ironically, the Sri Lanka School Cricket Association has a stranglehold of teen cricket in Sri Lanka and very little or nothing happens in that realm without the blessings of this arm of the Education Department. So, it could be safely concluded that there is a connection between the activities of the Education Department and the country failing make an impression in the ICC Under-19 World Cup tournaments.
The past winners of the Under-19 World Cup are: Australia 1988, England 1998, India 2000, Australia 2002, Pakistan 2004, Pakistan 2006, India 2008, Australia 2010, India 2012 and South Africa 2014. The only occasion that the Lankans made a mark in this tournament was when the tournament was played in Sri Lanka in 2000 and the Lankans ended up as the runners-up to India who have won the tournament on three occasions.
Just to mention that in 2008, the present Indian skipper Virat Kholi’s team was all out for 159 against South Africa in the final in Malaysia, but, the Indians fought back and skittled the opponents for 103 runs. In 2005, if I am not mistaken, the present Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews led the Lankan Under-19 team on a tour of England. The team which comprised his schoolmates Dimuth Karunaratne and Thisara Perera.
In that series the star player of the England teens was Stuart Broad who apparently did quite well against the visiting Lankan lads with the bat and ball and the Lankans failed to impress barring Mathews. Even at that time Broad was involved in more mature cricket in England.
A while later the Australian Under-19 team was on a visit to Sri Lanka and the Lankan teenagers did quite well to beat them on home conditions. Yet, when it came to the return bout in Australia, Jos Hazlewood, the present Australian fast bowler, and Mitchell Marsh, the current national allrounder – the duo were not a feature in their Under-19 squad when they visited Sri Lanka — did short work of the Lankan challenge. Both were involved in state cricket in Australia at that time.
On an earlier occasion, an SLC insider was explaining how the Indian system has taken their teenagers to three wins. He explained: “A while after the ICC Under-19 tournament is over the system rounds up 20-25 teen cricketers who would be eligible to play the next ICC Under-19 World Cup with talent and forms a squad to train. “First they are given a good exposure to the longer version of the game where they are given an insight into how to build up an inning. Gradually with about eight to ten months before the tournament, they get them to play as a squad in limited overs engagements, enabling then to understand each other and their individual styles of play”.
Now that we all know that the Lankans though having a vibrant school cricket system have failed to win a single ICC Under-19 World Cup. But Pakistan who hardly have a junior cricket system in that country have won the tournament twice. Let the 2016 Under-19 World Cup meander and good if the Lankans could make an impression. Nothing constructive could be done to the prevailing status quo at this moment.
Apparently, the SLC is restructuring its system and as a first step it is installing the zonal system with more programmes in the pipeline. At the same time could the SLC also nurture a system that could develop an entry point to the national grid without the controls of the SLSCA for the age groups from Under-17?
It is very evident that in countries like Australia, England and India, there are cricketers who are in the said age group and they are identified by the system and playing in more mature tournaments with bigger exposure. Until we adopt a system of that nature, we cannot hope to make an impression at this age group.