Top Spin By Suni For LankaWeb
30th April 2010

It’s only the first game with more to play, but having gone into the competition as strong contenders for the championship at the 2010 ICC T20 World Cup in the Carribean, Sri Lanka have been beaten narrowly by New Zealand when they should have come out on top with all guns blazing! and ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ while saying this regretfully,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the guns weren’t blazing today andƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the goodsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ undeliveredƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ as there seemd to be a circumspect air about theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Lankan batting which could only muster a meagre 136 where victory might have been assured with a score or more runsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ in the tally and the leadership of Kumar Sangakkara somewhat attesting to the cause of the loss alsoƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ !
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Sri Lanka if they were toƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ stake their claim towards the T20 WC Championship should have charged their opponents down butƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  with theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ shambles of a batting display where only the brilliant Mahela Jayawardena stood outƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ with a sound 81, could only post a meagre 136 which in the end was hardly competitive despite the fight back by the Lankans where missed catches and runouts very nearly worsened their performance but all in all it was the posted total whichƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  was consequentialƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ towardsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the Black Caps’s winƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ in the end!
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While there is a school ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ dissenting thought amongst certain criticsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ somewhat unfortunatelyƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ though perhapsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ surreptitiously thatƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sangakkara does not seem to carry the titleƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  of skipper to maximum capacity, in all fairness to himƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ there still is time to redeem his shortcomings in this area if this be the case where his effort towards the cause needs to be perhaps re-vamped with a greater resilience and killer instinct
He must motivate his players to their fullest capacity and be the driving force towards the Lankans’ success or risk the falling from grace as the illustrious Lankan skipper!
I
t takes no rocket science to decide the merits of his predecessor Mahela Jayawardena who was and still probably is a brilliant analyst, a great decision maker and someone whose cricketing savvy by far outweighs that of Sangakkara not due to any fault of his but the sheer fact of hisƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ appointment being prematureƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ where there already is a school of thought towards this concept and an undercurrent of thought which also beleives there were others better suited to the job which of course is inconsequential albeit perhaps regrettable on the consciences of some of the big wigs in Sri Lanka’s cricketing hierarchy.
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While its fair enough to surmise as the Selectors seem to beleive and whose judgements and decision making are undisputably final, that the T20 is a platform to test budding young players some of whom have pre-empted established and meritworth better players, one wonders if this was a move which may eventually compromise Sri Lanka’s real chances of winning the championship in the Carribean as players like Farveez Maharoof, Jehan Mubarak, Indika de Saram,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Thilan Samaraweera and Chamida VaasƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  are some who could have easily contributed many strengths towards the eventuality have been sidelined and hopefully the decision makers who are responsible for this will not have to rue their choices.
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What Sangakkara seems to be lacking most is the drive of an Arjuna Ranatunga or even a Mahela Jayawardena towards being forceful and assertive as this has become somewhat visible from his captaincy role in the recently concluded IPLT20 as well as the opener of the ICCT20 where a degree of panic seems to set in the moment Sri Lanka gets a bit intimidated by the opposition and to make matters worse for him, his performance with the bat as of lateƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  which too has not been that impressive.
So are these mitigatinfg factors that may have been allayed and better dealt with by a different leadership on the field. Perhaps even byƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ someoneƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ more deserving who in the endƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  was not even selected to make it to the Carribean or others who may have been a darnsight better skipper towards a pivotal opening win, present amongst todays losing Lankans!