| Sports |
|
| Ideal platform |
Bags unpacked. Travelling gear packed neatly back in the clothes cupboard, the Lankan cricketers are back in their own living room sharing a light chat with the kith and kin. I guess this little break off the burning track may be what they were yearning or in the back of their minds.
As far as the cricketers are concerned it is a break. But, for the policy makers this is the time to sit tight in their office chairs and begin to think of the cricket of tomorrow.
At the cricketing citadel at Maitland Place, the hierarchy bending over their back trying to get the ship seaworthy so that it would be fluttering with all its sails by February 2011 when the World Cup comes home. I mean tournament wise.
But, winning brining the cup home is up to the five wise men who call themselves the National cricket Selectors.
 |
| According to many a cricket pundit Mathew foots the bill as a future captain |
They have a job at hand. They have the whole gamut of local talent spread on the sheet taking part in the Provincial Tournament which took off with the Limited overs tournament, yesterday. Indeed this is almost the only tournament where every cricketer who has already worn the national cap and others who are aspiring to do so test their wits on the local platform.
Unlike the other years, this year’s tournament is a very significant one. This will be a good yardstick for the five wise men to draw up the plan as to how they would shape the future of cricket in Sri Lanka in the short term and in the long term.In the short term the task is not that much a daunting one. Already in the shelf are cricketers in the calibre of skipper Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, T.M. Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera, Nuwan Kulasekera, Thilan Thushara, Thilina Kandamby, Rangana Heart, Prasanna Jayawardena, Chamara Kapugedera, Malinga Bandara, Ajantha Mendis, Upul Tharanga, Lasith Malinga, Dhammika Prasad, Tharanga Paranavithana, Chamara Silva along with aging veteran Muttiah Muralitharan who may go up to the 2011 World Cup.
But, beyond the 2011 World Cup is also only a year away. By end March 2011 how many from the above mentioned will want to keep themselves wearing down in the burning hot sun day-in-day-out is yet to be learned. But, it is up to the five wise men to ship-shape strategy for the future. Yet, skipper Sangakkara is in the formative years of his captaincy. However, at 32 years and 103 days how long is he going to hold on to his reins or else would he plan to do another Dorian Gray like Sanath Jayasuriya? The other noted aspirant T.M. Dilshan at 33 years and 116 days is also not getting any younger. Lot will depend upon the final outcome of the 2011 World Cup.
Why not emulate India and we have the tailor made platform for it too. In 2007 India with limited exposure to T20 cricket was not the most ardent follower of that form of the game. So much so stalwarts, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid decided that they would opt to give that tournament a miss. As a result the Indian hierarchy infused young blood and sent in a side under rank outsider Mahendra Singh Dhoni to South Africa and the rest is well known history today.
No…..no … I am not even suggesting that any of our above mentioned stalwarts would say that they will not be in that flight to the West Indies, but, the five wise men make a decision to see how our younger stars would shape up if they are put to water at the deep end at the T20 World Cup against the best in the World.
Right at this moment all our guns are focused that the 2011 World Cup played in our own backyard. So, why not try a young captain whom the wise men think that may come handy in the post World Cup era.
The end result may not be important, but, the wise men will have the satisfaction of doing the right thing for the betterment of the game in this cricket crazy island.
Why not get the next-in-line of their choice for instance say a player in the calibre of Angelo Mathews to lead the side and blend it with a bit of experience and the rest of the side with more accent on the post 2011 players.
Right now names running across my mind as players for the future are – Mathews, Tissara Perera, Dinesh Chandimal, Jeewan Mendis who won the man-of-the series in two leading local tournaments in 2009, Lahiru Thirimanne, Seekuge Prasanna, Suraj Randiv, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep who bowls regularly at 140+, Chamara Welagedera, Farveez Maharoof, Mahela Udawatte, Dilshan Munaweera, Malinda Warnapura, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara, Kaushal Silva, Milinda Siriwardena and Chinthaka Jayasinghe etc.
Let the youth take the driving seat, and take Lankan cricket to the future.
The Inter Provincial Tournament will provide the ideal platform for the selectors to ascertain the current form of the local stalwarts, and how they perform on Lankan soil as the 2011 World Cup, will be played in the sub-continent.
At the same time the Indian and the Bangladeshi excursions proved that the younger generation of cricketers are a willing lot and are aspiring to take their rightful place. At the same time this is also a huge opportunity for those already established players to prove that they still have not lost their magic.
The Lankan cricket plethora has not been so good ever. Please don’t lose it. It is now up to the five wise men to shape the Lankan cricket for the future in the right direction. |
|
|
|
E-mail
