Tillakaratne laments lack of spirit for failure in U-19 World Cup
Ravindu Rasantha
Sri Lanka’s U-19 head coach Hashan Tillakaratne laments that his charges lacked consistency and flair they are known for, leading to their premature exit from the World Cup concluded last month. Bangladesh beat India to win their first global silverware while Sri Lanka returned home empty-handed finishing in an embarrassing 10th position.
“I am really disappointed with our performance in the tournament,” said the former Sri Lanka skipper. “After winning in West Indies, I thought we were fit to make it to the quarter-finals. We were inconsistent throughout the tournament. The hard yards we put in were in vain and also we did not have the fighting spirit we are known for. We did not have the Sri Lankan flair throughout the competition.”
Tillakaratne who completed two years in the job has now been transferred to the High Performance Centre based at Khettarama as Sri Lanka Cricket is head hunting for a foreign coach to put the junior cricket in order.
He was highly critical about the fielding standard of the team which he believes was one of the main reasons for Sri Lanka’s early exit.
“Our standard was below par,” he summed up. “Throughout the tournament and even before, our main concern was fielding. In the India match we gave away around 25 runs and dropped a crucial catch against New Zealand.”
Though Sri Lanka boasts of one of the best school cricket systems in the world, it has struggled to perform well at the Youth World Cup, held every two years. The best they have been so far is to the finals in 2000.
Following the exit, there had been lots of criticism against the team management for some of the decisions they made during the tour. They left one of their most consistent batsman Ahan Wickremasinghe on the bench for the opening game against India and in the must-win game against New Zealand, he was asked to bat at number eight. Tillakaratne defended the decision and said that they decided to give an opportunity to Thaveesha Abhishek, who is technically a better batsman than Ahan Wickramasinghe to counter the formidable Indian attack.
“Ahan was never a top order batsman with regard to our prepared batting format,” he explained. “He fits into our middle order role perfectly. We opted for Thaveesha Abhishek who is a technically sound batsman, to negotiate against the strong Indian seamers. Ahan was to bat number 7 against New Zealand. Unfortunately, we were sitting well at 108-2 and lost three quick wickets by the 23rd over. We sent in Dilum Sudeera to manage the situation and play a few overs. At 114-6 we sent in Ahan, as their leg spinner who was bowling well had only two overs to bowl. It was a tactical move which paid off.”
However, Jehan Mubarak, who is Royal College cricket coach where Ahan is a member recently told a cricket show that he was surprised by the decision to bat Ahan low down the order. He said Ahan should always bat at number four.
The opening combination of Kamil Mishara and Navod Paranavithana failed to deliver the goods in South Africa. Tillakaratne rued the fact that they couldn’t repeat the heroics in West Indies.
“We wanted Paranavithana to play his normal game. He’s a player who relies on hand-eye coordination. We wanted him to go after the bowling and Kamil to bat through to 40 overs. Unfortunately they couldn’t live up to our expectations,” the former wicketkeeper batsman noted.
He also noted that the inability to convert 50s in to 100 proved costly for the Lion cubs.
“The conversion rate was poor too. We had a lot of 30s to 40s. This was an issue for us. Before the tournament we had only two centuries being scored while India came in with 23 centuries,” he pointed out.
On a brighter note, he said, left-arm fast bowler Dilshan Madushanka bowled exceptionally well as he claimed 12 wickets in five matches. Throughout the tournament he bowled with pace and at the same time he was accurate.
Dilshan Madushanka claimed 12 scalps
On the other hand Ravindu Rasantha was the second highest run-getter in the 2020 event. The 18-year-old was one of the silver linings for Sri Lanka who failed to progress to the knockout stage. Rasantha, impressed in the matches against India and Nigeria, with scores of 49 and unbeaten 102 while he also scored a fighting 66 which came in a lost cause in the Plate final against England. He scored 286 runs in the tournament at an average of 71.50 and he is a future prospect for Sri Lanka.
Expressing his views on the future of junior cricket, Tillakaratne said: “Sri Lanka cricket needs to have their own U-15 and U-17 squads up and running so that they make it to the U-19 level polished and with some experience. When you look at India and England their U-19 World Cup players come to the tournament with Ranji trophy and country experience behind them. We need to find a way to counter that. For example we beat the champion Bangladesh side at home 2-1 but they came back strongly after one year to win the World Cup.”
He said that players should learn from the past and adjust, if they want to be successful.
“Cricket based knowledge is very important. Quick learning and not repeating the same mistakes is the way forward. We made a mistake by overlooking a certain set of seniors and brought in juniors to replace them while giving them experience. As proved, this takes time,” he said.
Another Under 19 World Cup, another disappointment, the wait continues and let’s hope that we will have a better story to tell in 2022.