Hiran Hewavisenti…..in FACEBOOK ….https://www.facebook.com/
Matters of the cricketing mind
Sri Lankan cricket – which is a passion for some and a religion for others like yours truly – is in shambles. It can’t be anything else when our highest ranking across the three formats is No. 7. Emulating our world champion teams of 1996 and 2014 has thus become a distant dream… because those who have run the show paid lip service to a golden rule of nurturing talent, which we’ve had – and still have – in abundance.
hey’ve thrown the young into the deep end while showing the door to the legends who should – and still could – guide them on and off the field… because of a number, which they blindly call ‘ageing.’
The nations at the top of their game, on the other hand, have continued to retain the Sharmas, Roots, Kohlis, Smiths, Buttlers, Bavumas, Jadejas and even the Aussie trio of pacies… and Sir James Anderson played beyond 40 until not long ago.
Be that as it may, it isn’t only about age, here in Sri Lanka!
We continue to see the brightest talent being left at home while picking bits and pieces cricketers to travel to lands afar – and believe it or not, one of them happens to be our most capped T20 player!
Thankfully, there have been a few savvy picks in the test arena, although there are question marks about the captaincy and whether the bowlers are good enough to trouble the best opposition.
In the T20 format, we have looked out of our depth… because the big hitters are left in the cold, in addition to which too many strike bowlers (numero uno Hasaranga, Pathirana, Kumara et al) continue to be injury-prone at more than regular intervals.
And in what is currently the most important format of all – by virtue of an ODI World Cup being all but 12 months away – the batting leaves more than a lot to be desired; again, because we leave the legends (Mathews and Chandimal) and young talent (Avishka, Nuwanidu, Sadeera, Sonal, Milan and Chamindu) out.
As for matters of the mind, the need of the hour is mental conditioning, which we don’t seem to have invested in, along with injury management and ideally, prevention!
So the litmus test ahead of Sri Lanka’s all-format tour of Pakistan in less than two weeks is whether the right choices are made (and one hopes that the likes of Mishara and Udara aren’t axed, like other talented batters have been in the past).
The diehard fans among us will never say die – as long as there’s a method to the madness!
May Sri Lankan cricket rise from the ashes.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
