Can Silverwood add that missing flavour?
Naveed Nawaz joins the ranks as Chris Silverwood's assistant
Expectations are fairly-tale high as Sri Lanka welcomes Chris Silverwood as Head Coach of the national cricket team, ending a long search for Mickey Arthur’s successor.
But a quick turnaround of fortunes under a new coaching set-up–that also includes Assistant Coach Naveed Nawaz–is a snowball’s chance in hell. Silverwood, who succeeded Trevor Bayliss as head coach in October 2019, has had decent success with the England national team before a 4-0 defeat last year in the Ashes cost him his job.
England failed to pass 300 even once across 10 innings and six times they were dismissed for below 200, including a series low of 68 in the Boxing Day Test
at Melbourne.
Having run short of options, Sri Lanka settled for Silverwood. This is a great opportunity for the former English fast-bowler to restore his reputation after being relieved of his previous position. But what can he bring to the table that his predecessors could not during the last seven years?
At his maiden press conference in Colombo, Silverwood said instilling confidence and discipline in the players would be a major focus during his tenure. He also spoke of improving ICC rankings. But wait. Isn’t that what Graham Ford, Chandika Hathurusingha and Mickey Arthur also tried to do–but failed to achieve–during their stints with Sri Lanka Cricket?
Sri Lanka is currently languishing at seven, eight and nine in Tests, ODIs and T20 rankings, respectively. It is not an encouraging record for a team that was once regularly among the world’s top five teams. Silverwood has come up with short, medium and long-term plans for the development of the Sri Lanka team.
In the short term, winning the series in Bangladesh, his first assignment, will be key, as will clinching the series against Australia and Pakistan at home. When Australia toured Sri Lanka six years ago, the hosts treated them with a 3-0 defeat in the Test series, a historic feat in the annals of Sri Lanka’s cricketing history. Can they do it again? The chances a remote.
They will also be playing the Asia Cup and the World T20 tournaments later this year. Silverwood will hope to take Sri Lanka at least to the knockout stage which has eluded the team since its 2014 grand success. Sri Lanka won both Asia Cup and T20 World Cup in 2014, which was the last time the team laid their hands on regional and global silverware.
Coaches contribute much towards the success of a team but without a core group of players guiding and leading from the front, success can be inconsistent as we have seen over the last seven years.
Dav Whatmore played a key role in Sri Lanka’s victory at the 1996 World Cup and Tom Moody took Sri Lanka cricket to an all new level during his stint, overseeing Sri Lanka’s assent to the World Cup final in 2007. Though Ford wasn’t in charge of the team at the time, his previous his two years with the team helped Sri Lanka finally win the T20 World Cup in 2014, having missed it twice in 2009 and 2012.
But one commonality was that these coaches had that core group of players leading from the front. During Whatmore’s tenure, Sri Lanka had players in Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Roshan Mahanama, Hashan Tillakaratne and Asanka Gurusinha. There was also Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas. It was a perfect blend.
If not for this, even if Whatmore had waved a magic wand, the World Cup would have eluded us. This is just one example. Tom Moody had a great team in Sanath Jayasuriya, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralidaran Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara and TM Dilshan forming the core. Combined with Moody’s influence, Sri Lanka enjoyed great success.
The story is no different during Bayliss’ four-year period. With the exploits of Jayasuriya, Atapattu and Vaas diminishing, it was left to Sangakkara, Jayawardena, Dilshan, Muralidaran, Rangana Herath and Lasith Malinga to take up the responsibility. They were at the top of their game and Sri Lanka conquered many frontiers, reaching two World Cup finals—T20 World Cup in England in
2009 and the 2011 World Cup final in India—to become one of the most consistent teams in global cricket events.
Graham Ford, the successor to Bayliss had a group of iconic names to work with. Sri Lanka ended up as the losing finalist at the T20 World Cup in 2012 but won it two years later in Bangladesh.
Since then, however, Sri Lanka has been in a steady decline as the team does not have the luxury of core players in the side. Silverwood has inherited a team of with promise but not champions.
Angelo Mathews, Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal are still around but apart from Karunaratne, the rest are on the wane. There’s Kusal Mendis, Avishka Fernando, Niroshan Dickwella, Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Dushmantha Chameera, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana who have shown promise. Still, it will take real effort to transform them into a champion team. Can he join the likes of Whatmore, Moody, Bayliss and Ford or will he perish like Hathurusingha? Time will tell.