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It's time to ponder
Now that they are back here, it's time to sit back and ponder. They left Sri Lanka on a very high note - crowned with the Asia Cup and then bashing the daylights out of the Proteas. They could not be held entirely responsible for what happened in the freezing conditions at the mini-world cup. But, can the Lankan cricket hierarchy be happy and call every thing is 'tickety-boo'?

Why? Though Sri Lanka won the Paktel Cup and squared the series against Pakistan in the two tests, did we do the right things where there are all square pegs in square holes or round pegs in round holes as you may call it? As a team couldn't have we fared better or couldn't have we fielded more balanced teams in the two tests?

Cricket is not a game that is played by only eleven men representing the nation out there in the middle. Once the toss is done and the umpires walk in, a big majority of a nation of a little more than an eighteen million people play every forward defense, duck under every bouncer and bowl every Yorker. They are elated at every high point and have butterflies in their stomachs in every debacle. So, those at the top cannot alienate themselves from the people at the decisions they take as in one way or the other a whole nation is embroiled in it and they have some responsibility towards the people.

For instance T.M. Dilshan, a batsman who has an average of 31.70 and has three centuries and two half centuries to his credit, is sent packing home and was replaced ( in the team ) by Jehan Mubarak ( Ian Daniel was not given a chance in the two tests even though he also was there on this rotation thing ). Mubarak is no Michael Clarke and has a Test average of 20.87 in Tests and 29.09 in first class cricket.

Then in the two Tests the man who shone the most as a bowler in their tour down under - Upul Chandana - was languishing on the side lines while Danish Kaneria who is also a right arm leg-spinner was turning circles round the Sri Lankan batsmen in the second Test.

Thirdly, at thirty five, wicket keeper Romesh Kaluwitharana who was a sad spectacle as a batsman occupied one slot of the eleven players when some one else of more use to the final outcome of the match could have occupied that slot as Sri Lanka already has a specialist wicket keeper in the side.

Riddled with all these questions the Sunday Times sought the help of Sri Lankan Cricket Manager of the Pakistan tour Brendon Kuruppu. The former Sri Lanka batsman who also had to don wicket-keeping gloves for no fault of his knows a little bit on how things happen around him.

Brendon said, "I think we did very well in the tour of Pakistan. In the ODI's we lost two matches and won two and even in the two matches that we lost our top order batsmen including Marvan, Mahela, Kumar and Dilshan came out well with the bat. In these two games Sanath couldn't do much with the bat, but came up with a scintillating spell with the ball to win the final for us"

Then the ST asked what happened at the two test matches? There were brilliant performances namely the century by Tilan Samaraweera in the first Test followed up with the fast bowling spell by Dilhara Fernando besides Jayasuriya's epic innings.

In the second Test besides the two centuries by Sangakkara and Jayasuriya there were no other noteworthy performances by the rest of the team. To this the Lankan cricket manager said that the Lankan team believes in playing as a unit rather than eleven individual players. For instance during the first Test when Sri Lanka lost the cream of their top order with only nine runs on the board Samaraweera held the side together and saw them through to a respectable score which finally enabled them fight back and win the game.

At this juncture the ST quizzed him about the Kaneria factor. The Pakistani leg spinner had the Lankans in a web while our own leg spinner was languishing. To this quip his answer was "Only eleven players can take the field. We went in with what we thought is the best combination. It was seven batsmen and four bowlers. In that we also included three seam bowlers and a spinner. That was the best we could do".

But, when posed with the question of if Sri Lanka had gone in with Kumar Sangakkara to keep and played Chandana instead of Kaluwitharana, Kuruppu said "There are some policy decisions that are taken by the selection committee which does not come under the purview of the tour selection committee. The selection committee is of the view that with Kumar Sangakkara in such good form at present, one must not burden him too much with other responsibilities. So for this they have brought in a specialist wicket keeper into the side. When a thing of this nature occurs, the touring selection committee sticks with what the national selectors at this end have recommended as their policy."

When one reads between the lines he can clearly understand that they are still falling short of a common policy. Till this anomaly is rectified Sri Lankan cricket will always lag behind.

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