Pathetic display by Sri Lankan Cricket Team
Posted on December 27th, 2012
Larry de Silva Melbourne Australia
As a Sri Lankan expatriate living in Melbourne, I was one of thousands of such people disheartened and saddened by the pathetic display offered by the Sri Lankan Cricket Team at the MCG.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I wish to offer some thoughts as to why the Sri Lankans seem to be uncompetitive away from home; what plans should be employed to improve the competitiveness of SL cricket irrespective of where the matches may be played, and on player development. Quality comes from the player not the conditions.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In my opinion, it is a combination of many points. It is nigh impossible during these days of 20/20 and ODI cricket frenzy however the BEST preparation for SL before an important tour like this would have been to arrive in Australia 3-4 weeks before the first test and practice on the bouncy wickets before even playing a practice match or two. Get their heads right about the pitches first before doing anything else. Maybe employ a Sports Psychologist to join the army of other support staff they have.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A second point of developing young players has always been a major problem in SL due to them being Colombo centric in their recruiting. Some of the very best talent is found in the remote rural areas but they don t have the facilities to develop the talent at most of these locations. And like in any country, only a few are prepared to move from their rural homes and farms to the big smoke to try and make it, because they are needed at home for financial survival.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A third point is the variable standard of the domestic cricket competitions. This is not the proper way to develop young players for future test cricket at a very high standard. They MUST start touring countries like England, South Africa and Australia in under 17 tours with good, talented coaches.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Lastly (and this is NOT restricted to only SL), many young players are not coming through the ranks with technically correct batting or the ability to concentrate and focus for a long time while batting like they used to when I was a kid in Sri Lanka. My school cricket coaches would make us do 20 push ups with pads on if we drove a ball in the air!! How times (and aspects of cricket) have changed!!
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I really worry about the future of test cricket in the sub continent when I see pathetically poor performances like this from a Sri Lankan test cricket team. I honestly fear that they will gravitate towards the 20/20 and ODI games at which they are at least competitive, and just go through the mere motions of playing test cricket.
December 27th, 2012 at 5:54 pm
It was certainly a pathetic display by the Sri Lankan batsmen, especially from some of the “so called” top four. To add injury to insult the fielders also missed so many chances. The pathetic display continues today in the 2nd innings with Mahela and Dilshan batting like losers.
Winning the toss in a game give so much advantage to the batting side, but our batsmen showed their lack confidence and application. Now it is time to get rid of this old guard and bring Chandimal and Thirimana into the team. Certainly they can not do any worse than those top guys. Mitchel Jonson batted better than any of our batsmen.
Is this the results of our cricket boards stupid and arrogant stance against Mahela? It is time the sports ministry take action against the board’s loud mouth members and our chief selector. Why are Ajantha Mendis, Upul Tharanga and Tissara Perepa not in the team?
December 27th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Sarath W, you are spot on buddy. This is not test cricket; this is Sri Lanka being totally humiliated. As I write this, they are 4 for 21! Thus stupid Cricket board should be sacked after the silly stance against Mahela a day before an important test. They cannot just become a law unto themselves. The Sports Minister must show some backbone and ensure that this type of embarrassing debacle never happens again.
December 28th, 2012 at 4:24 am
Sarath W,
We have tall fast bowlers like the two Fernandos both are capaple and have bowled at 150 kPh. Instead the greedy selectors insulted Australian batters by selecting 120 kPh Kulasekara. They corrected it slightly by choosing 140 kPh Dhammika but why not the Fernandos who are capable of what Johnson did to fingers of our batsmen.
It is the sharp short ball that did the main damage.
DO NOT CHOOSE THOSE BELOW 140 kPh.