by : Aravinda Samarasinghe & Kelum Wijewardena :
Once they were the team that revolutionised ODI batting, then they were the team that became world cup champions and then after a brief hiatus they were T20 champions. For more than a decade they even boasted the batting records in all three formats. But now, a shadow of their former selves, they barely made it to the 2019 ICC ODI world cup and have to go through a qualifying series to get into the T20 World Cup. They have lost all that glory. The winning spirit that was once their trademark has vanished. Now they hardly play a test match past the 3rd day, struggle to bat for full 50 overs in one dayers and can’t even clear the boundary in a T20. Where did it all go wrong for Sri Lanka?
Administration of Sri Lanka cricket is not known to be the most sophisticated, organized or chaos free. In fact it was always full of chaos. The elected boards get dismissed halfway through their term and then cricket is administered by interim committees. There is so much in-fighting for the elections between different factions but none have a clear vision, a plan or any interest to develop cricket. When the top is disorganized and corrupted it is inevitable the bottom follows suit. Amid a world of disarray one cannot expect the players to fix everything. In sports there is both win & loss but sadly Sri Lanka cricket seems to be accumulating only losses.
We used to love watching cricket and used to be glued to the TV, specially since the Australia tour of Sri Lanka in 1995. As young 12 year olds it was exciting to watch this team, they epitomized the concept of ‘team was greater than the sum of the individual parts’. Win or lose there was always a chance of a good contest. It was an era of cricketers like Aravinda, Arjuna, Sanath, Kalu, Murali, Vaas etc, the list goes on. It was always entertaining to watch Aravinda de Silva batting. That enthusiasm and excitement of cricket was lost in the early 2000s. That is when Sri Lanka cricket started its decline. We never saw the players in the same calibre of Aravinda or Sanath. We had individuals like Mahela, Dilshan, Herath and Sangakkara but that was it. Not much of a team or team of winners. Never a match from the likes of the past.
Along came the IPL and the excess of financials came with it. It did good for India but look where it has got the rest of the world. Youngsters so eager to play the shorter format and do better in aim of a lucrative deal in the IPL have sacrificed improving in the longer formats. We have seen how this has dented the batting of the once mighty Australians, West Indies and even South Africa. IPL is partly the reason for Sri Lankan crickets demise. There were pay disputes, public spats from senior players and political interference, combined together nothing good came to the betterment of the game. If anything it just made it better for a handful of players. Some players had the brains to develop their game and had the willpower to train hard to do well. One of these individuals even became the best batsman in the world. However there is no point in having the best batsman in the world if the team isn’t playing as a team.
Another reason for the downfall was there wasn’t much attention to develop junior players alongside the seniors. The juniors in a lot of instance had to fend for themselves and improve on their own. There were more than one example where a senior player batted at the opening slot until they retired or were forced to. There was a perfect opportunity here to play a younger batsman in that spot to play and develop. It shows Sri Lanka always held individuals above the game. It should be the game of cricket at the top and individuals contributing to the success of it while achieving success for themselves. One can argue this was always the case and individuals stepped up in the past. That is where we are out of our depth now.
We have players coming from a very weak domestic first class structure. There have been a lot of debutants in the past three years, even perhaps more than what we had the previous 5 years combined. In numbers, we had 21 ODI debutants, 18 Test debutants, and not to forget 7 ODI captains and 4 Test captain between 2016 – 2019 to date. At the time of writing this, a new Test captain is appointed for the upcoming tour to South Africa. That takes Test captains tally to 5. But none of the newcomers have shown the skill level that is required to compete in the international stage. The country’s current best player cannot play a whole series without an injury halfway through which then sidelines him for another couple of tours. However these same players are also very quick to criticise the administration after being dropped due to fitness issues, while also showcasing it in public. As if 10 push-ups can all of a sudden turn you into superman. We have an all rounder that has not improved since the debut. Sill uses the same style of bowling and a one dimensional style of batting , nearly a decade on he has shown absolutely no development in his game. Just a handful of hits here and there, nothing solid or consistent. If Sri Lanka are to learn or actually show any willingness to learn, they don’t have to look farther than their own Kumar Sangakkara. Or across the gulf of Mannar India’s MS Dhoni is a role model to study in maintaining fitness, the art of leadership, analysis of the game, and making the opposition work harder for a win.
Even the changing of coaching staff have achieved very little progress. Players cricketing skills, batting, bowling and fielding have not improved, player fitness hasn’t improved, in fact the only thing that seems to have grown is the players bellies. There’s no shortage of that. How long before we realize the issue is with the current players? This playing group is simply out of their depth for what current international cricketing standards demand. Quite contrary to the ‘Too big to fail’ concept it is perhaps wiser to just start fresh and develop the next generation now instead of bringing them in to this cancerous fold. There is absolutely nothing a budding youngster could learn by being, training and playing with this group, as sad as it is that unfortunately is the reality of Sri Lankan Cricket.If we start fresh, maybe just maybe we will begin to see some improvement in the coming years, otherwise we fear, Sri Lanka, once one of the toughest fighters in the cricketing world, will just end up being a mere footnote in the history of this game.
Image Credit : Sri Lanka Cricket