I always feel so indebted to those lyricists who have helped me more than once to get over my predicament of an opening line. Before I put my thoughts down in Toto, I wanted to make it very clear that these lines would be on the right track so with the help of that Glen Campbell Classic I say:

“If you see your brother standing by the road
With a heavy load from the seeds he's sowed
And if you see your sister falling by the way
Just stop and stay you're going the wrong way”.

”Yes, now to the more serious stuff that has to be lined on the table and discussed.”
Now the people have begun to ask questions. The performances of the Lankans have fallen far short of expectations even taking into account that in a 50 over match we chased 414 runs and fell short by only three runs! Just before Sri Lanka scored that 411 runs in a chase “I got a note asking why shouldn’t we ask the Lankans to come back home without disgracing our cricket and our country?”

Just prior to that, while I was chatting with some present cricket insiders, we agreed on one point about that epic game on Tuesday. Sri Lanka had won the toss and put India into bat and the three of us could not understand why. Then I came up with this theory that maybe that the Lankan skipper had lost his trust in his bowlers and had invited the Indians to bat on a pitch that was described as a belter by none other than Sunil Gavaskar. My contention was that the Lankan camp was trying to make a chase batting second even if we had to follow a three plus total.

Are we heading in the right direction?

To my mind this situation was totally unacceptable. The others also agreed. I saw it as if Sri Lanka was drifting back to the pre Murali-Vaas era where they had to contend with some trundlers who had no idea of how to be consistently competitive at international level. My biggest fear was and – “is Sri Lanka going to be as empty in the post Murali-Vaas era?”

As usual either to substantiate my fears or to dispel them totally I sought the views of a person whom I hold in very high esteem for his in-depth knowledge of the game besides the other top drawer qualities he holds for himself like a beacon. However for some obvious reasons he preferred to remain behind the print and let people hear only his thoughts.

We came full steam on to him and posted the question and expected him to reciprocate like a ton of bricks. I thought his composure and the vast knowledge of the game stood up at that point. He was ready to sink the Lankan bowlers wholesale. He pointed out: “Some of the Lankan medium pacers bowled some good balls, but, I feel Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar took batting into another plane. Just imagine all those balls that sailed over the ropes were not bad balls but, to hit them sixes over extra cover repeatedly takes an extra class of batting. At times I wonder if these bats nowadays are rocket propelled!”

Then he came to the crux of the matter. The Murali-Vaas void dilemma that Sri Lanka cricket is facing at present. He said, “It is inevitable that this problem was going to rise at some point. For nearly two decades these two cricketers kept the Lankan bowling on-course and helped them win many accolades. It is for sure that we cannot reproduce another Murali and a Vaas. To get another pair of that caliber together is well neigh impossible. But, these are realities that you have to face”.

Still he was not giving up on the rest of the bowlers. “Before going to India these very same bowlers were performing well and brought in positive results for Sri Lanka even in the absence of Murali. What I genuinely feel is that we have not handled the given situations according to the call of the moment. I feel that skipper Kumar Sangakkara has failed at this point.”

He pointed out the most glaring faux pas was Sangakkara’s action in the second T20 game that Sri Lanka allowed India to score over 200 runs for win. “In the first game that Sri Lanka won, Sanath Jayasuriya bowled well and it was one of the winning factors, but, in the second game, he was not bowled at all. “I describe that as a huge faux pas as a captain. Generally even a school captain tends to try something different when your regular attack is being taken to task; those are elementary aspects of captaincy.”

Another aspect that arose during the discussion was how Sangakkara tends to lose his composure when proceedings are on the reverse. He said, “The Problem is that when in discussion he has such an in-depth knowledge of the game, but, in reality he is unable to convert it back into action”.

When asked as to why the Lankan fielding has also hit a new low especially during this tour? He analyzed it very professionally. “It’s all in the mind. Generally Sri Lanka is a good fielding side. If you had seen the T20 game that Sri Lanka won, we did not find any fielding lapses there, it was a very professional job. But, in the very next game there were mistakes galore. The moment you droop your shoulders as a team, the first thing that suffers is the fielding. To field well you have to believe in yourself. Once again I feel the responsibility goes back to the top to get the team rallying around you and keep performing at demanding levels. The moment the top is not sure about the proceedings the entire team effort caves in like a hole in the bucket. That is inevitable”.