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Getting knocked out of the Champions Trophy is not the end of the world. Just to sum it up the Lankan lads played the game as good any other on day one and faltered on a bad pitch on day two and followed it up with a very bad day in office on day three. This resulted in their demise and so the same happened to even hosts South Africa and India who are the top dogs in all kinds of cricket in the cauldron.
Nevertheless nothing can go wrong on our part if we could sit back and take stock of what happened and how we could take another look at the picture from a different angle.
After a few days in the billet our soldiers will be back in the fray on another grueling assignment in neighbouring ‘big brother’s house’. Taking on India in India is no walk in the park. But, history shows that sporadically the Lankans have walked back to the pavilion with their heads held high – if you want to know how to do it just ask Duleep Mendis. It can be a place where one could see the difference between boys and men.
The tour is more important because the Lankan lads will go out there with the charge of defending or harnessing their position in the ICC Test rankings as they would be involved in 3 Test matches and 5 One-day Internationals during the two month stay.
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| Sangakkara reacted more than once on the feild |
The only other Test series that the Lankans will involve themselves prior to the next World Cup will be their engagement against the West Indies in an year hence where they will be involved in the same number of matches as against the Indians.
The rest of the series will be all ODIs – beginning with Bangladesh 2-3 game Tri-series that will also involve India, April: Asia Cup probably in Sri Lanka, June: Host New Zealand for 4-5 game series, tour Australia in early 2011 prior to the World Cup and then the World Cup proper in our own back yard.
So with the accent more on the next World Cup and the preceding preparations isn’t it good for us to sit back and take stock of what’s going around?
Prior to the Champions trophy the cry was “making our middle muscle stronger”. Lo and behold we really have achieved. Now beginning from experienced Thilan Samaraweera – the rest of the gang – Thilina Kandamby, Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Mathews are complementing each other. Each of these batsmen now have learned what their role in the side is and are playing to the order making useful contribution in tandem rather than failing. Spurred by those mentioned, now even Nuwan Kulasekera and Thilan Thushara are beginning to believe in themselves and their role with the bat. They have proved that they can convert a hopeless 50-5 into a respectable 200+.
Now can we speak the same language about the Lankan top four where we always boast that we have over a thousand (1174) matches between them and arguably the top rankers, where experience is concerned. But, in match conditions especially the ODIs, how effective have they been consistency wise?
In 1996 a young Sanath Jayasuriya and a young Romesh Kaluwitharana were given the license to kill right at the top. Didn’t they relish it and didn’t they make the whole cricketing world stand on its head? This innovative move by the Lankans brought in new norms in ODI cricket.
At the same time while bringing in the move they also made sure that they put minimum pressure on their ‘power pack’ – the Aravinda-Arjuna combination. At number three they had Asanka Gurusinha who was one of the most reliable one-drop batsmen in the World at that time. Then following the ‘AA’ combination were the Roshan Mahanama-Hashan Tillekeratne duo who were no mugs with the bat on any count. So going into the 1996 World Cup the Lankans exactly knew what their modus-operand was and they stuck by it.
Can we speak the same language about the present pack of ‘four’? At the top after thirteen years of his initial license Sanath Jayasuriya is still trying to fire from his now rusty gun. At the other end Tillekeratne Dilshan is trying to come to terms with his new found fortunes and if the oppositions would be able to break the codes of his “attack mode” once again Sri Lanka would be in trouble.
Then the million dollar question is does skipper Sangakkara have to bat at No3? Is he taking the pressures of being the wicket-keeper, virtual opener, No 3 and national captain?
More than once we have seen Sangakkara the captain reacting to the situations on field, which is one of the most demeaning factors of the captaincy especially when it comes to the job of a national captain.
The sign of a captain shaking is also no good news for a team. Sangakkara on his own is one of the most organized and erudite cricketers in the entire cricketing world. More than once he also has been rated the best batsman in the accepted norm of Test cricket. Even in the ODI version of the game, his exploits though not the same, has been more good than bad. But, in his last eleven outings his contributions have been 36, 2, 37 not out, 39 and 16 against Pakistan, 18 vs New Zealand, 5 vs India, 33 vs India 54 vs South Africa, 1 vs England and 11 vs New Zealand. As captain this performance with the bat is not at all impressive. At the same time did his on-field tantrums cost Sri Lanka the ICC spirit of the game award this time?
There have been previous instances where brilliant cricketers in the caliber of Sachin Tendulkar, Ian Botham had to relinquish their captaincy as a result of it becoming a bother to their individual brilliance. As taking the captaincy away from them also did not take any plaudits away from their cricketing careers. I subtly feel that both Jayasuriya and Jayawardena who captained Sri Lanka before Sangakkara gave up to concentrate on their future with the national innings in mind.
At the same time we hear of so many inside stories through the grapevine and if they have substance they also may not do much good for the future of Sri Lanka cricket. Now it is time to sit back take stock and take even the bitter decisions before Lankan cricket really suffers. |
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