By S.R. Pathiravithana

Nishantha Ranatunga

With the recent surfacing of fresh talent, Sri Lanka Cricket is keen to capitalize on the development.

Secretary Interim Committee Sri Lanka Cricket Nishantha Ranatunga speaking to the Sunday Times said “Though comparatively this is a tiny island, we have an abundance of talent in Sri Lanka. But, we must learn how to nurture this talent and maximise on it”.

SLC will look at taking the game to the outskirts of the cities. “This is where the majority of the talent comes from. Give them the necessary facilities and proper infrastructure and decentralize the game I just can’t imagine to what extent the game would grow.”.
As a prioritized matter the SLC will begin with an under 23 provincial tournament this September, following the club under 23 tournament. In this tournament initially the young cricketers will play a inter-provincial tournament and with that nucleus form the provincial team to take part in the all island provincial tournament.

Besides this SLC is also looking seriously at the possibilities of starting their own High Performance Centre in countries similiar to England and Australia. At this centre all modern facilities which is an essential tool for the higher elevation of skills will be provided. Ranatunga added at this centre we are looking at a cricketer needing a batting knock at ten pm. Could get it. Right at the moment SLC even does have its own indoor nets.

Another area that they are looking seriously is the schools arena. SLC has now launched a programme where they would help the schools to obtain necessary equipment. “We will help them, but they too must help themselves by bearing a portion of the cost. Then they will also realize the value of it”.

Middle level cricketers are also an important factor. Ranatunga added “We lose a lot of good talent because some of the cricketers give up once they complete their schools career. What we are looking at are the middle level cricketers also to become professionals so that they would be comfortably off during their cricketing days. When they are professionals, they would have to perform at a level higher than the present so that they would be picked into their team always. Then automatically the quality of cricket goes higher and the game in the country grows into a higher elevation”.

Adding the final ingredient to the chat the SLC secretary added “Just producing cricketers to get on the field and perform is not sufficient. They must be whole products. At times we find once even a national cricketer gets an accolade he is scared to go to the stage because he is gripped with stage fright. We are now striving to give all these players who are under our contracts lessons in public speaking and other relevant training so that they could mingle easily in the places where their calls of duty takes them to.

“Besides that we also have mooted a programme to take the national cricketers to their respective provinces when on off duty. Once they are in their provinces we hope to engage them in the upliftment of the game in the respective areas like coaching and motivating the younger brood. This will be a huge boost to cricket especially in the very interior conclaves where the young school cricketers do not get a chance of seeing their national idols”.