While having my weekly chat with a cricket insider I inquired the real meaning of having the Provincial Tournament while already having a well established club cricket tournament where the roots run deep.

The Lankan Club cricket structure was originally a well organized, a ‘lean and mean’ one where only the cream of Sri Lanka cricket was on show. I remember some years ago the SSC-Bloomfield match drew more than five thousand spectators and the talent on show was mainly the best what the country had on offer. The structure had SSC, NCC, CCC, Tamil Union, Bloomfield, BRC, Colts, Adastrians, Army and Police. Then from the above mentioned clubs, talent circled around SSC and NCC with Bloomfield and CCC breaking in later on. Yes, it was purely a Colombo based structure, but to be a part of the tournament, the system commanded talent.

Action at the Basnahira North vs Kandurata match… Our Cameraman Ranjith Perera captured this action that involved national stars Angelo Mathews and Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara (behind the stumps). With all the available national cricketers in action this became one of the most talked about tournaments in recent times, but did it serve the purpose?

However with Sri Lanka getting Test status and the game getting broad based, the number of clubs began to add on with a lot of accent getting on to regional Clubs like, Moratuwa SC, Panadura SC, Kalutara TC, Kalutara SC, Sinha Sports Club from Ambalangoda, Galle CC and Kandy CC etc.
Ironically this broad basing had its own demerits. While the number of clubs increased, the quality of cricket decreased. However the Lankan cricket becoming more politicized, and the vote at the AGM counting more the club structure grew, but the quality of cricket began to suffer more than it could take. Today the Premier Division Club cricket tournament is no more a show piece and there would be more spectators patronizing the club’s bar than those really watching a premier division club cricket tournament.

Getting back into the original question my friend answered “The primary reason to launch the Provincial Tournament was that because Club Cricket has become very lopsided the. Think Tank of local cricket came up with this idea of another tournament which could rise from the incumbent system where the top 100 players in the country could be fitted into 5-6 teams and play a quality tournament where the standards would be a few steps higher than the existing club cricket tournament”.

The argument on surface is very good. What Sri Lanka needs at the moment is a good series where the cream of local cricket is involved and provide good fare that would take the local cricket to a higher level like the Ranji Trophy in India, the Australian Sheffield Shield, The English County Cricket or the South African state version of it.

But is it happening? If one puts the whole tournament under a microscope one may find the whole system full of unhealthy bacteria. First, the teams for this super tournament were named as Kandurata, Ruhuna, Basnahira North Basnahira South, Wayamba and SLC Combined Xl. Besides the Combined Xl, at once one tends to think that the players representing the sides have their roots and the sense of belonging to that particular side. Like Kumar Sangakkara who hails from Kandy leading the Kandurata side or Upul Tharanga who is an original southerner leading the Ruhuna Xl. Ironically that was not how it happened. What transpired was, a criterion was formed and the names were thrown into a lot listed under various teams.

Then Thilina Thushara Mirando, Dilhara Fernando, Suraj Randiv etc were drafted into the Kandurata side in spite of having their roots elsewhere. Even in drawing the lots was there equal distribution. Hardly so! The Kandurata had players in the calibre of Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Suraj Randiv, Jeewan Mendis, Tharanga Paranavithana, Seekuge Prasanna, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Chinthaka Jayasinghe, Thilina Thushara Mirando, Sachith Pathirana, Dilhara Fernando and a list of others. The list of thirteen mentioned above is almost a national side.

But, what really happened is when a side has Muttiah Muralitharan and Suraj Randiv along with Jeewan Mendis who is one of the best allrounders in the current market with his batting and leg spin bowling could Seekuge Prasanna get a chance to prove himself at this level? In any of the other sides Prasanna may have had a better chance of playing a majority of the games.

Then just have a look at another side in the same ‘super tournament’! Basnahira South. Injured appointed captain T.M. Dilshan did not play in any of the games. The rest of the list read – Chamara Silva, Malinda Warnapura, Milinda Siriwardena, Hasantha Fernando, Gihan Rupasinghe, Prasanna Jayawardena, Nuwan Zoysa, Malinga Bandara, Suranga Lakmal, Janaka Gunaratne, Dilruwan Perera, Lahiru Thirimanne, Amila Prasad, Chinthaka Perera, Dinuk Hettiarachchi, Yohan de Silva and Ruchira Perera. Going name by name can this side be compared with the Kandurata outfit? Mind you this was not a side that was drafted by regional managements. Then one cannot complain about the disparity of the two sides. But, when the lots are thrown to selectors and they do the job of deciding who goes where, at least the draw card could have read better.

Then a few snippets in the tournament were that Tharanga Paranavithana who is branded as ‘Test Only’ material by the selectors was one of the successes of the entire limited overs tournament. Then former national skipper Mahela Jayawardena continued to struggle batting at number four even at this level of the game, but when he opened with Jeewantha Kulatunga in Wayamba’s game against Kandurata put on a 71 run match winning stand where national fast bowler Thilina Thushara went for 65 runs in just five overs.

Then comes the biggest twist of all. It was not many moons ago that the local selectors or whoever you can call them professed that veteran Sanath Jayasuriya now has no place in the Lankan top order in international cricket and he will now play in the middle order as a bowling all-rounder , that was that. In the next international tour young Upul Tharanga and mercurial T.M. Dilshan did wonders, as the Lankan opening batsmen.

The Provincial tournament is no joke as far as they are concerned. It is the precursor to international cricket in Sri Lanka. However intriguingly once again like ‘Jack-in-the-box’ there was the old crooner back at the helm opening batting with Upul Tharanga without much success though. However a national player confided that all these slots are lined by the ‘bunch of wise men’ who call themselves the selectors.

We all know when it came to the fate of Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas who opted to stay on with the shorter version of the game internationally the selectors adopted double standards. But, if the standards were as it stands with Jayasuriya the cricketer and what would be the standard the selectors would follow with Jayasuriya the Politico – MP or the Minister of Sports.

Then who is responsible? Jayasuriya or the selectors?