By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Rangana has retired from ODI   and T20. but willingly accepted the role of skipper for the Zimbabwe series, winning the series for the country 2-0 and adding further 19 wickets in just 2 test matches. It must be noted that his team had only two seniors, Upul Tharanga and himself.   He marshalled the bowlers extremely well, his field placements were outstanding.

Herath ( 38 yrs ) is physically fit compared with Anglow Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal.   Herath’s age has so far not shown any sign of his inability to play cricket for 5 days, leading the team and performing as the main bowler. Herath has handled and managed the workload with exceptional courage. Retaining Herath as the Test Captain for the forthcoming tour of South Africa is essential, to improve the status of our rankings, by winning against a team at top of the ladder. Even a series draw against South Africa especially   in their own backyard will further strengthen the team’s future performances.

Sri Lanka has been struggling to maintain a respectable position in world rankings for the past several years even though millions of dollars have been paid to the senior contracted players. Players like Tissara Perera had become VIP passengers in a vehicle. We might have now found the right recipe for the test cricket.

Angelo Mathews had not been able to feature as a great leader, bowler or batsman. Angelo’s workload need to be managed to make better use of his skills over a long period of time. Rotational captaincy method is needed in Sri Lanka in all 3 forms of cricket.   Providing an opportunity to Upul Tharanga to lead ODI series against Zimbabwe is a positive direction, as Dinesh Chandimal has also been injury proned quite frequently.

There is no further need to worry about the lack of skills of Mahela, Kumara, Sanath, Murali etc. Our new team of youngsters have demonstrated stamina, patience and aggressive playing styles, bringing back the memories of Sanath and Kalu.

Former Australian Skipper Michael Clerk was removed due to constant injuries as he missed several games repeatedly.   Steve Smith’s performances are also under a cloud at the moment, selectors are pondering possible replacement, perhaps David Warner to carry the mantle.

We urge the selectors to introduce the rotational captaincy system paving way for personnel development and providing opportunity to other players, instead of total domination of the game by selected few for several years.   We have paid the penalty of retaining some players at the top and as skippers for far too long, without any added value.   Therefore, their departure should be a blessing in disguise.

Retaining Rangana Herath as Test Captain should be signalled as a good starting point.