The Aravinda doctrine

I am more than familiar with the sight of Aravinda de Silva walking across the boundary and walking into the middle to take on the world. Whether it was Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Glen McGrath or Anil Kumble at the trundling end he had the same composure and you could feel the stoic resolute running in his veins. On Thursday there was no difference.

The man behind the mike taking on the fourth estate had the same look in his eyes.
De Silva in his capacity as the chairman of cricket selectors was there to explain his modus operandi in team selection for the forthcoming Asia Cup, which is also a precursor for the next World Cup which will be played in our own back yard in February 2011. From this point onwards every single move will be made with that ultimate goal in mind.

Aravinda de Silva >> watch video

At the same time we also would like to share with the general public as to how the champion batsman explained his course of action. After making a request to leave the cricketers alone to carry on with their tasks at hand, de Silva explained every single move that had been contemplated.

Talent is an ingredient Sri Lanka is not short of by any means. But, the only flaw that we at this end see in their armour is the flinching middle order which most of the time brings uncertainty to the Lankan repertoire. When the question was popped Aravinda seemed to be very confident of the line up. It seems that he had done a detailed study of the situation. Aravinda explained “For me it looks solid at the moment. When you take Dilshan, Tharanga, Kumar and Mahela and if Kandamby can come in at seven, our batting will run deep.” Meanwhile he also gave some indication that ever improving Angelo Mathews could be sent up in the order. This will mean that Chamara Kapugedera and Thilan Samaraweera will have to pull out all the tricks up their sleeves and come up with consistent performances if they are to keep hold of a single slot.

When asked about Chamara Kapugedera failing to live up to his potential so far, Aravinda explained about how the management kept their faith in Marvan Atapattu after he had failed in his initial outings, but, the management knew about his potential and persisted with him “And we know what followed. At the same time Sanath Jayasuriya in his first few years averaged only nine or ten. However after keeping faith in him he developed to become a World Champion.” In short Aravinda explained that there are two categories of players. “For instance Angelo Mathews has developed into a good player within a very short period; likewise there are players who take time to develop. Nevertheless they can not keep failing over and over again and still look to remain within the loop.”

The former Sri Lanka vice captain who was a teammate of Sanath Jayasuriya said that as the latter had failed to deliver during the recent past he had been overlooked, but commented on young Dinesh Chandimal and said “Yes, he is within the loop. But, we found out that Chandimal may not be able to get a place when we wrote down the sides for the first two games. In the Asia Cup there are only a limited number of matches so we preferred for him to travel to Australia where he would be clearly engaged in active cricket and exposed to good opposition”.

Aravinda also spoke about his bowling strategies. He said that Ajantha Mendis who did well in Zimbabwe was held back on a tactical move and he would talk to the player concerned about it and explained that Farveez Maharoof had had a good run at Dambulla so he came into scrutiny over the others. Then he also explained that Maharoof had been playing with injuries and he had not been able perform at peak level in the past, “All this is in the past we will consider only what happens from this point onwards”.

Commenting further on the bowling department de Silva explained the reason for the inclusion of left armer, Rangana Herath, who has surfaced after a huge break. “With regard to Rangana we wanted certain variations in our bowling attack. We are playing seven games at Dambulla and the wicket might take turn towards the end of the tournament. We are playing Pakistan who has quite a number of right handers and Herath may be a good investment against them.”

On the seam combination, Aravinda said that there was competition among the fast bowlers for their respective berths. “We want to work with them and find out what the ideal combination would be during the World Cup. If you look at the strengths of the fast bowlers, it varies. You have to look at their ability or their individual talent. Lasith Malinga and Dilhara Fernando are almost the same in style and they are bowlers whom we use to get a break, but at the same time they may go for a few runs. So we must include bowlers in the squad in a way that we strike the correct balance.”

On the two new players who surfaced during the Zimbabwe tour – Dinesh Chandimal and Jeewan Mendis, Aravinda named them as having great potential and said that a player like Mendis would be considered along with Thilina Kandamby as batsmen who could bowl leg spin and this would be a big boon to the team balance. He also added the performances of Mendis and Chandimal during the Australian tour will be looked at very closely.

Finally Aravinda said that there are only a limited number of slots in a squad and it had to be balanced in such manner that it was to be very strong and as well as very resilient, and you must always strive to have correct balance in the team with all the ingredients included.

At last, after a few anxious months, we have seen the light at the end of the tunnel. Let us hope that the wheels will keep turning in the right direction till the end of World Cup 2011.