From an almost self-appointed abyss, the Lankan cricket rose up to challenge the world hierarchy in cricket during the Commonwealth Bank tri-series tournament against the World’s No 1 ODI players Australia and the current Cricket World Cup Champions India.
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| Dilshan gets a pat from his skipper for a yet another good show |
Yes, Sri Lanka may have been pipped-at-the-post by the home team in the final on Thursday. But in Australia’s own turn, arguably there had been no other side that has beaten them on four occasions in limited over game history. Now in spite of virtually throwing away the final that was almost in their bag, the Lankan have scored a huge morale booster at international level.
It was only last month, the former England cricket captain Peter May in his Cricket365 blog wrote: “But, really, it should get easier next month in Sri Lanka. Since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan England's next hosts have won one of 17 Tests. That is not the performance of a front-line nation and the new rankings confirm as much.
“Fifth-placed Pakistan are as close to the top (England, since you ask) as to sixth-placed Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, are as close to the West Indies as to Pakistan in the same table. There is clearly a gulf in class between the top five and bottom two main Test nations; Mahela Jayawardene's men are the odd ones out, fitting neither category comfortably, but are now arguably slipping the wrong side of the divide.
“The absence of Muralitharan, the lack of a new generation of players to replace the golden one now straddling retirement, and increasingly absurd political mismanagement (former coach Geoff Marsh's tenure was shorter than your average Thilan Samaraweera knock) puts Sri Lanka in decline.”
This statement was a mouthful. That was the popular opinion of the pundits of the arena just a month ago.
May be, the handling of the Marsh affair and some other factors that afflicted Sri Lanka cricket still prevail. But, since the advent of Mahela Jayawardena as captain, the Lankan team has experienced rejuvenation. Just look at the boys’ eyes, there is hope in them.
Now the scene has moved closer home. The Asia Cup tournament is on in Bangladesh and on Tuesday Sri Lanka will take on their nemesis on many a, occasion – India -- in their first round game.
As much for India – the reigning champions, who are still recovering from their elimination from the tri-series after an almost heroic show in their last outing -- will go all out to punch another hole in the Lankan pride.
The Lankans, on their part, must prove that their brand of cricket is good enough to hold their own on any surface and any corner of the globe like what they proved in South Africa and Australia – two of the last frontiers to the cricketers of the Indian sub-continent.
Now let us go back and discuss some of the pluses and minuses of that series and how they may have affected the final outcome of the series.
First a huge thank you should go Mahela’s predecessor T.M. Dilshan for his conduct during the entire series. In the aftermath of the World Cup what really took place is still a mystery and only the then skipper Kumar Sangakkara and few others would know.
However we at this end still feel that a poking south-paw panjandrum was at the end of the business and made life difficult for Sangakkara to carry on and on that veil of resignations and hullabaloo Dilshan was almost pushed into the hot seat – which most saw as a direct result of a coup d’etat that was manufactured behind the curtain. Certainly this made Sri Lanka’s post-Murali recovery take a little longer. Then when we faced setbacks in in England and the UAE (against Pakistan), moves for change at the top were designed and the rest is history.
Yet, after having to relinquish his crown Dilshan blended into the side well woven. He batted with his old belligerence, was a panther at backward point and then he cajoled his seniors to hand him over the new ball which he trundled with skill. Fittingly Dilshan ended up as the most valuable player of the tournament.
The other plus factor was young Chandimal who is batting with a lot of youthful exuberance, but, he too must remember that over confidence may not bring him any charity.
Farveez Maharoof made a welcome back, but he too must learn that bowling at the right corridors is vital in the limited overs version of cricket. At the same time he also must be aware that he falls very short of being a complete allrounder. To a certain extent Malinga, lived up to his menacing reputation, yet, most of the time he lived far away from the green that he stood. Normally a fair fielder he failed more than once to stop some stoppables. Then with the bat he only did a quarter of what he does during the IPL and even bowling he left some questions unanswered on some occasions.
Yet, we ask wouldn’t it have been better if Dhammika Prasad was included in the final XI on Thursday over a half fit Lasith Malinga who was a main contributor to the final outcome of the final match.
Then another mystery we still are trying to solve is the prudence of including Chamara Kapugedera as the replacement to Thisara Perera. After making a three figure score for NCC in the early part of the domestic season Kapugedera was struggling even at home. Then there was Thilan Samaraweera as the stand by for the tour. If the tour management wanted a seamer Chamara Welagedara who was almost on “a tourist visa” was always there.
All in all, the road to recovery has been made. More importantly Mahela has taught the youngsters to take the onus and perform accordingly.
The Asia Cup is another facet. Yet, the two Test matches against England would be the real test and the test dip to tell the world that Sri Lanka has moved out of the problems of the post-Murali era. |
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