How to improve our cricket
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As far as I know, every year, various cricketers spell out ideas to reform and build up our future Cricketers, from among the juniors.
This vision came up when we won the World Cup in 1996. Arjuna Ranatunga had ideas of doing this, but due to the formation, at various times, of interim committees, this vision never came into being. Now, again the administration wants to start an Under (U)-13 and U-15 programme to build up our future National Cricket. Will these programmes keep changing every year due to various pressures that come upon the administration or, changes in the administrations? This is like the administration changing the national coaches at various times.
As Cricket enthusiasts, are we to keep waiting until a miracle happens to make Sri Lanka cricket the best in the world. Great Cricketers like Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Sidath Wettimuny, Ranjith Fernando and Mahela Jayawardena to name a few, have many times advised the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) how to improve our Cricket, but end up in poor results, the reason for this being unknown.
Hence, the SLC should concentrate on building up among cricketers at premier level competitions. My cricket, I developed not by playing school cricket, but by playing for SSC, with stalwarts who played National Cricket.
As building up cricket at school level should be done at district level, where the SLC should appoint former cricketers with coaching knowledge to each district, and play matches against each other at district level. It is not necessary for SLC to extend all their resources on school cricket. Cricketers build up their cricket only at club level.
Lasantha Rodrigo
Former Sri Lanka Cricketer