Sports

Sports

A step in the right direction
By S. R. Pathiravithana
You can breathe a sigh of relief when you suddenly stumble upon something right that the authorities are trying to implement and carry on doing. At that particular time you think to yourself, shouting out till your voice is hoarse that it is worth because, it gives you the satisfaction of being heard. Thanks to the Authorities, the under 15 Inter-Provincial tournament is definitely a step in the right direction, if all intentions are good and the wagon wheels turn on the right track.

According to top Director Coaching Sri Lanka Cricket – Bandula Warnapura “This is a tournament which is about to be revived in a meaningful manner”.
The teams will be Western Province North Outer, Western Province South Outer, Central Province, Southern Province, Western Province City ‘A’, Western Province City ‘B”, Uva Province and North Central Province. At the same time Sri Lanka cricket also has named a host of past cricketers to act as the coaches for these provinces. They are: Piyal Wijetunge - Uva Province, Keerthi Gunaratne W.P. North Outer (Gampaha/Puttalam) W.L. Vithanage –W.P. South Outer (Kalutara/Ratnapura), Sunil Fernando -- Central Province, Hemal Mendis – W.P Colombo City, Rohitha Perera Southern Province and Ajith Ekanayake – North Central Province.

This takes me back to one of the chats that I had with former Sri Lanka skipper Arjuna Ranatunge who had a vision for local junior cricket in the same vein before he quit the SLC’s cricket Committee. His idea was also to have junior pools at all age groups so that a selected group of cricketers are always within SLC’s scrutiny for any given age group.

At the same time after the Bangla bashing on our own backyard during the under 19 World Cup tie the Lankan Under 19 coach Sumithra Warnakulasuriya also expressed his concerns over the predicament of Lankan junior cricket and cried out for meaningful steps to be taken.

In all earnestness this anomaly is a result of expanding the Sri Lanka schools cricket structure by the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association without a proper plan which culminated in a situation where quantity sans quality took the centre stage.

This is no time to find out how and why it occurred, but it is the most opportune time to take remedial measures and change the junior structure from a school based one to a meaningful provincial based one which has proper coaches and proper administration. In short a structure with a proper plan. When a plan of this nature is in operation and is working systematically even the biggest critic of the junior structure will know the administration is hands on.

It is sad to note that around two decades or a little more ago Sri Lanka’s school cricket was as good as any other in the world and it did not need any outside structure to nurture itself. It just kept on producing cricketers oozing with talent for the next generation in real treadmill fashion. Some might turn around and say that Sri Lanka did not play Test cricket in that era and the quality of cricket we played was of a lesser quality. But the fact remains that the talent the Sri Lankans possess now or then does not differ. If ever there was a difference in that era it was only stage fright, because Sri Lanka at that time did not play against the bigger boys on a regular basis.

The Director of Coaching Bandula Warnapura explained the modalities of selection: “The schools season is run as it is and at this point we request the Schools Cricket Association to send in all the score sheets. Here the players with the best performances are selected by a panel appointed by us. Even here we find that some players of promise have been left out as a result of the school authorities failing to send in the results sheets. However if any one makes representation to us regarding this, we in turn request them to get a certified letter from the respective principal and draft them also into the pool. This way no one is left out. At the same time the appointed coaches also go around watching matches and hand-picking some. Finally the players go into a pool and start their training.

“Then at the end of the tournament we form a national under 15 pool. At the same time we also try at all costs not to interfere with their schooling or their schools careers. However we do have training sessions whenever the time permits more so during the school holidays.

“From this beginning the SLC junior pools keep taking steps up from one age group to the other. From one age group to the other there will be additions and omissions till it reaches the higher grade”

On paper this seems to be the ideal medicine for the prevailing ailment in Sri Lanka junior cricket. As it is Sri Lanka is no longer an isolated cricketing minnow and the need of the hour is for Sri Lanka Cricket to gear up themelves as real professionals and this should cascade down to the junior levels. If the picking of cricketers to the junior pools is done in a systematic manner there will be no need for the Schools Cricket Association to conduct separate pools for junior cricket as SLC will have the real nucleus of the junior talent which has gone through professional hands and being trained by them from a very tender age.

Then if there is a cricket series with another country at any given time the authorities need not run helter-skelter and form pools and waste time, money and energy. They are ready to deliver cricket pools for all age groups from under 15 to 19. In the same breath if any one finds that there is a cricketer who is talented and is omitted from the national pool the SLC will also be in a position to point a finger and hold someone responsible. Isn’t this the best scenario? ‘Ooh, what a wonderful world it would be?

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