Upali Dharmadasa, the haughty Sri Lanka Cricket President, is trying to wield divine powers which are still not bestowed upon him. At the first executive committee meeting he prevailed upon the others who have done the job of handling the media before and said that it was he who was to be the media spokesman for Sri Lanka Cricket.
 When asked if there was any outside pressure built up by a recently retired cricketer who is now a parliamentarian the answer was ….. “No”. (Pic by Amila Praboda) From that point the chose the easiest way out. He adopted the “ring out policy”. When the media personnel needs any clarification, the Dharmadasa phone rings and then rings out. There is no answer till about the tenth consecutive try and after the eleventh try, you get an irate answer from Dharmadasa claiming that he is at a meeting and if we could contact him later and then it all begins again.
This was the scenario even when the Lankan team arrived from their South African tour and was at home on a short stop over prior to taking wing Down Under to take part in the Commonwealth tri-series against high riding Australia and wounded India.
The media wanted to get some clarifications from SLC with regard to the tour, but the SLC was not geared to do so.
Unlike the others, the Aussie tour has great significance. Leading the Lankan side once again is Mahela Jayawardena who is considered to be the best captain Sri Lanka had produced in the post-Arjuna Ranatunga era.
This is Jayawardena’s second coming into the hot seat. He well knows about the circumstances which led to his resignation just after the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Yet he must be wiser to the ploy and after living on the other side of the fence for a while, now he must be knowing how to late cut them.
So much so the ‘give away’ smile both -- former captain Dilshan and Jayawardena had on their faces when asked about outside pressures brought in by a recently retired cricketer who now is a politician when they met the press on Thursday said more than a thousand words even if the answer was a weak ‘No’.
At the same time, Jayawardena faces a big challenge as he has the unenviable task of regrouping and marshalling his troops on the Australian battle fields where the pace and bounce of the wickets have so far got the better of our Indian neighbours.
Prior to getting down to the tour proper, let us go through the back stage rehearsals. It was reportedly during the Pakistan series, the pending changes gathered pace first. However Jayawardena was averse to taking over again, as he knew the involvement ahead awaiting him. When the cards were on the deck, Jayawardena first said they must let the incumbent captain go through the period which was given to him.Then he also came up with more asterisks and one such asterisk was that there should not be any outside interference in team selections and allied matters. When the authorities agreed to it, Sri Lanka had a new captain to lead the beleaguered nation to seek their fortunes in Australia.
Good that the Lankans go in for this tour with back to back wins against South Africa, even if they were scored against the sides that the home team was experimenting with. Yet to score over three hundred runs twice over to win matches when considering that they were done out of our own shores is very creditable.
Still the down side is that the post-Murali bowling attack still has not shaped itself to gear to the needs of international cricket in the present context.
May be that T.M. Dilshan may not have been the ideal tactician especially when it comes to the proposition of handling a fledgling attack with our bowlers still learning their pluses and minuses. We do agree that in that context one needs a shrewd captain at the helm to get the bowlers to perform at 100+ and also shepherd the rest of the field to back their bowlers. This is exactly how the Australians managed to put confidence into a bowling attack which is still comparatively new. But, they are improving by the game. The reason – they have begun to believe in themselves.
Besides, the Lankan team also has been given the opportunity to have former national one-drop batsman Charith Senanayake as manager -- a man who opts to call a spade a spade and always does the right thing. In addition he is also a no-nonsense man and will definitely not tolerate any mutinies on board.
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| When asked if there was any outside pressure built up by a recently retired cricketer who is now a parliamentarian the answer was ….. “No”. (Pic by Amila Praboda) |
Another plus point that the Lankans have is that the two youngsters whom they are grooming for tomorrow: Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne are ready to put their hands up and take the responsibility. They headed to top the Lankan roll call while playing overseas; it really gives a good indication of their calibre and what they are capable of.
So, the incumbent captain will know that the next generation of cricketers in Sri Lanka are in the making and when the above combination are tied up with Angelo Mathews it could make an awesome threesome.
Now the challenge for Jayawardena and company will be how he would try to encourage these three youngsters and give them more exposure in the short term and the mid-term so that they hold their own when it comes to the long term exploits.
We at this end also understand that what the cricket authorities are expecting from Jayawardena and co is the same. What they need is to first put the bowling department to it correct perspective.
It is heartening to note that within his own limitations, Rangana Herat has developed into a very confident operator and seemingly the opponents are beginning to respect him. Yet, another bowler to operate in tandem is still a search.
Another matter which is yet a riddle is the bad handling to of Suraj Randiv. At one point he was bowling well and at that point he should have been persisted with, but, he was not used the way he should have been used and now he has lost some of that confidence. But, good in domestic cricket he is taking wickets and hopefully the England ‘A’ tour would give him a resurrection. A good and confident Herat-Randiv combination will be good even for long term prospects of Sri Lanka cricket.
The Lankan seam attack is more on the breakdown than at the crease. We are hoping to probe into this act in detail next week. Yet, for this tour, the Lankans will have to do with the available resources, though it is inadequate from an Australian perspective.
Tour Squad: Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Angelo Mathews (Vice Captain), Upul Tharanga, T.M. Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne, Thisira Perera, Farveez Maharoof, Rangana Herath, Sachithra Senanayake, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekera, Chamara Welagedera, Dhammika Prasad.
Thilan Samaraweera.
Support staff on tour: Charith Senanayake (Manager), Graham Ford (Coach), Champaka Ramanayake (Bowling Coach), Ruwan Kalpage (Fielding Coach), Marvan Attapattu (Batting Coach), (Dharshana Weerasinghe (Trainer), Steve Mount (Physiotherapist), W.R. Priyadharshana (Masseur) G.T.T. Niroshan (Computer Analyst)
Click here watch Mahela- Dilshan Press Conference |
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