Who beat whom, in the scuffle of ego?
Since 2019, even up until yesterday, Sri Lanka is still struggling to find their true potential as a team - Pic courtesy Sameera Peiris
It seems that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has lost the plot. They have certainly invited ridicule. Just days after Danushka Gunathilaka returned home from being cleared of rape in Australia, he was exonerated by the SLC disciplinary committee, allowing him to resume cricket at the national and international level.
Although the rape allegations were proven to be false, his actions in sneaking out of the team hotel to meet his Tinder date while on national duty was still a serious breach of discipline. He has also had several other disciplinary issues in the past, including breaching the bio-secure bubble during Sri Lanka’s tour of England in 2021.
As a sports ambassador, Gunathilaka is expected to uphold certain standards of conduct. His behaviour sends a bad message to other cricketers and to the public, suggesting that it is acceptable to break the rules and bring disrepute to the sport and country without any consequences.
Many believe that SLC should have at least handed Gunathilaka a suspended sentence and a strong warning to show there was no room for indiscipline in the sport. However, given SLC’s own history of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement, it is not surprising that they let him off.
This decision is a setback for Sri Lankan cricket and further undermines the public’s trust in the sport. It is also a missed opportunity to send a strong message to other cricketers that indiscipline will not be tolerated. It’s hard to build structures and stability within the team when they don’t exist in the SLC. The current team is struggling for direction and purpose, just like the Board is.
The team must not be allowed to slide any further. Since winning the World Cup and up until 2015, Sri Lanka has been a respected, resolute, intelligent outfit. In those years, the country produced many great cricketers who wore the national jersey with pride.
Now and then a champion emerged – Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Muttiah Muralidaran, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chaminda Vaas, Kumar Sangakkara, Lasith Malinga and Mahela Jayawardena, to name a few. But since 2016, there’s dearth in the production line. Sri Lanka no longer believe in themselves to be a competitive team that can regularly challenge the top-notch teams in the world.
The selectors had to scrape the barrel to gather 15 fit cricketers to send to India for the World Cup after several key players were ruled out with injury while some were declared unfit. We are paying dearly for a lack of proper preparation for a tournament of this stature. Injuries have crippled the bowling and the batting unit continues to struggle, making Sri Lanka as good as those bottom rank teams fighting to challenge top teams like South Africa, Pakistan and Australia.
Of course, some selections were baffling. Dasun Shanaka’s retention as captain when his batting has failed miserably over the last six months is a mystery (just like the ‘injury’ that ruled him out of the World Cup just two matches into the tournament).
And why he continues to be a part of the larger squad despite the chances of getting into the main squad even at the latter stage of the tournament being remote is questionable. Are the selectors planning to include him after October 28, when his rehabilitation comes to an end?
With Angelo Mathews and Dushmantha Chameera both added as travelling reserves, it will be even harder for Shanaka to join the squad unless there’s a major collapse in the fitness of players. Mathews should have been recalled earlier as Shanaka’s replacement as he would have steadied the middle-order that lacked consistency.
But in their wisdom, the selectors decided to call up Chamika Karunaratne, a bits-and-pieces cricketer, instead of a proper batsman who can contribute with the ball. So, Sri Lanka paid dearly against Australia when a middle-order collapse handed an easy win for the men in yellow.
This is a long tournament. Sri Lanka has five matches to go and must beat all of them to have some hope of a semi-final spot. But this seems a long and hard shot for them as they looked like a team that was far from reaching the standard of those at the top.
A disappointing end in India will put the incumbents–selectors, captain and coaches–in the spotlight once again but that will not solve the longstanding issues unless proper direction is set forth. Their preparations for the 2027 tournament should start soon after this edition of the World Cup with a sense of purpose. That is the only way to be the type of team they were between 1996 and 2015.