End of the Muppet show

Sri Lankan cricket followers are quite used to being entertained in the same way they can be fooled. Both sides of the coin could not have been seen in a better way than what was witnessed during the concluded tour of Australia. But few people would have seen the balancing act unfurl on a tour which came to a close with the 'resignation' rather than 'retirement' of one of the main dramatists of the show Marvan Atapattu whose reference to the selectors as muppets and joker would have raked in many new fans of cricket.

It will be interesting to read the manager’s, coach’s, captain's and selector's reports. But of course the public will not have the privilege of reading such reports which will remain confidential after the cutain was brought down on the Muppet Show. Not only did Sri Lanka lose, the team could not even compete as a unit in the first place. While Australia got down to play even before the first Test started by naming its playing eleven five days before the series, Sri Lanka announced its team just hours before the toss which meant that nothing was organised in the touring side's camp.Excuses will no doubt be made. But why did fast bowlers Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando and Lasith Malinga perform below par with the ball and why was Sujeewa de Silva, another bowler got down as 'cover', kept out of the action. Coach Trevor Bayliss on more than one occasion revealed that Fernando and Vaas were not a hundred percent fit as they carried niggling injuries. In batting, two players, Thilan Samaraweera and Chamara Silva proved they had more to learn than show against a state-of-the-art team like Australia although the duo may be stars against weak teams.

But the question that has to be asked is will the selectors wait for another Muppet Show and continue to keep the future in limbo by persisting with ageing players.World-wide those who played in the era when Sri Lanka won the World Cup in 1996 are no more in the game and the teams that lost to Sri Lanka have far better players man for man while Sri Lanka is still harping on its most valuable player at the time Sanath Jayasuriya.

Atapattu not only laughed heartily when he quit, he also made others laugh and cry. Jayasuriya will laugh too. Administrators and selectors never had the guts to step on new turf and groom players of the future. Emotions have always got the better of Sri Lankans while administrators merely cashed in and played save. For them living for a past was all that mattered while plane loads of potential players from Sri Lanka went in search of greener pastures overseas unable to put up with the rot.

The list that had several players who could have put in their stint with the Sri Lanka team is too numerous to mention. Genuine school coaches with cricket at heart would vouch for this.

Jayasuriya conquered the world and gave his folks something to cheer in a 'politically correct' country but he bows out without showing his colours in the ultimate form of cricket against the best team in the world.

He will continue to hammer his 100’s on slow one-day pitches and whether this is what Sri Lanka cricket is all about, who cares. Even the experts like selectors and board presidents go along with this slogan. Where else in the world will there be a sports minister who picks the national team. In hindsight Jayasuriya stayed on for too long which only extended the faith people had in him. In this extended period what Jayasuriya's followers did not realize was that many of his (Jayasuriya’s) would-be successors were falling by the way side. Presently administrators and cricketers take their friendships too far in cricket. If this attitude should continue, even the muppets will argue that Sri Lanka would be better off just playing one-day cricket. This way her Test cricket would not be made an international laughing stock.