Sri Lanka WON and Selectors LOST
Posted on February 27th, 2015
Ananda De Costa
Sri Lankans have a bad habit of hanging on to persons than to the obvious truth. We won 1996 world cup with very experienced players and we were out in the first round at the next world cup hanging on to most of them.
Sri Lanka won yesterday beating Bangladesh, making sure a place in the quarterfinals but did our local coaches and selectors learn any lesson from it ?
Are we prepared to take risks which is essential to bring victories in a big tournament?
There is no doubt we have the most experienced and skilled batsmen of all the teams, if not in the history of all the ICC world cup tournaments. Mahela, Sangakkara, Dilshan , Tharanga and Mathews are the best set of frontline batsmen in the world, yet the foolish selectors do not give them the deserved responsibility and authority to attack any bowling side in the world. Yesterday match results proved we need not play eight batters doubting skills of all of them. 50% probability assumption approach is actually conservative enough to avoid defeat due to insufficient runs on the board. When they nominate too many batsmen, obviously there is insufficient concentration generated in the minds of batsmen, encouraging lethargy. This attitude is an insult to Mahela ,Sangakkara and Dilshan.
In the recent past we had two good batting all rounders in Tisara Perera and Ashan Priyanjan. Ashan was not selected but there are few players in the squad who are very unlikely to perform well under Australia and New Zealand conditions. This cannot be corrected now but selectors must select the best team to suit each match and venue.
The selected team for yesterday’s match was completely out of balance, as if we have NOT trusted our batsmen. It was a complete failure for the selectors, despite a good win. Obviously there were many good batsmen who did only fielding and were thus useless as batsmen. Thisara Perera was overused as frontline bowler, giving him a back injury. Selectors are totally to be blamed for this.
Clearly we lack good fast bowlers and it cannot be rectified by fielding spinners in a land where Muralidharan got hammered 100 runs in 10 overs. Indians are aware of this , but our selectors are busy praying than thinking. If one looks at Australia, New Zealand, India and South African squads , they all have at least four specialist fast bowlers.
Australia– Pat Cummings, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood
New Zealand – Tim Southee , Trent Boult, Adam Milne and Kyle Mills
India – Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma and Mohomad Shami ( I ignored Bhuvaneshwar as he is a Kulasekara type bowler but much better)
South Africa – Morne Morkel, Dale Styne, Wayne Parnell and Aron Phangiso
Sri Lanka –( Half fit) Malinga, , Suranga Lakmal, ( I don’t list Kulasekara here as he is an all-rounder who can only bowl more than 3-5 opening spell without getting hammered and Dushmantha Chameera who is the only Sri Lankan bowler who is capable of hitting 150 kPh on a MCC pitch but forced to carry drinks)
Yesterday , we went with two specialist fast bowlers and the shortcoming was clearly evident. We will be getting hammered in the England match if we do the same and if we could not put 300+ score on the board.
Writer Mohammad Islam of ESPN Cricinfo mentioned this in his report Sri Lanka’s decision to play with one less bowler in the absence of Jeevan Mendis ultimately wasn’t tested enough as they had plenty of runs to bank on. Malinga took three wickets and Lakmal bowled with a lot of energy, but two dropped catches meant he didn’t end with better bowling figures. Sri Lanka, nonetheless, have plenty to take away from this resounding result.”
In fact, this win may even encourage our unscrupulous selectors.
When will our selectors learn?
Are they waiting for the inevitable disaster?
February 27th, 2015 at 4:53 pm
Mahela is longing for the opening position and Sanath do not want Mahela to open as the Chairman of the Selectors. The reason he gives is once Mahela retires, who will then open batting? … Most runs Mahela had scored were when he opened the batting. And the other thing is this is the World Cup and the last opportunity for Mahela to play for the country. No matter what happens after world cup as we can experiment with a young player or bring back Upul Tharanga for that matter… then why Mahela is not given the due position??
In place of Jeewan Mendis, they could have brought a good fast bawling allrounder and preserve Thisara as a part time bawler.. but brought Tharanga. (I am not against Tharanga anyway). This is to further stop giving Mahela the opening slot.
This is the same story as happening in SL. Runnil and the clan are helping the West and India to punish MR, GR and other Ranawiruwos out of shear hatred and betrayal attitude.
Sanath Jayasooriya is doing the same with Mahela and he hates Sanga too. When will our nation come out of this betrayal attitude?? Are we going to be a failed nation??
February 27th, 2015 at 8:04 pm
Ananda,
No, I never confused you with Ananda-USA…being two totally different characters!
I still maintain that strengthening the batting is the appropriate measure. As regards our win over B’desh, we must not forget that Thirimanne was dropped off a sitter when on 0, and Sanga was dropped also off a sitter when on 60. How the other batsmen would have fared is pure speculation.
Yet the batting is our strong point, and we must play to our strength.
Our bowling is WEAK. Chameera is faster for sure, but inexperienced. How he will face when under fire is yet to be seen. To me he is still better than Malinga who is a shadow of his former self. But adding another pace bowler by sacrificing a batsmen is not at all prudent.
Our batting strength must go right down to No.8, and the aim must be to post a score past 300.
Keep the bowlers to their present number. Their role is to contain the opposition. More cannot be expected of them.
Mario Perera
Kadawata
February 27th, 2015 at 8:28 pm
I am watching Aus-Nz match right now (probably 12 hours before you read this, thanks to my disliking of MR).
25 years old Trent Boult has destroyed Australian batting. He has only played 19 matches. When Adam Milne bowling at 155 kPh juststarted bowling Australia already 9 wicket down.
Mario,
Jason Holder, same age as Chameera is captaining West Indies. They could have used him to give experience in the last match and before than in NZ. These evil selectors did not do it. Now they will dump him in a difficult situation and destroy him. I think the smoker Chamida Vass is jealous of faster bowlers. He wants to make sure no one will surpass him in records. He will gradually destroy young fast bowlers.
We do have good bowlers like Nuwan Pardeep who were never given a chance to play ODIs. Even Dhammika Prasad, 31 years old has played only 24 matches. They are faster and much better bowlers than Kulasekara, who is not considered for Tests after getting hammered by Chris Gale some time ago.
Without giving a chance you can’t develop young bowlers. I tend to agree with Nilwala that jealousy is also ruing our cricket.
Anyway, I think they should use Chameera in the next match and throughout the tournament. But they may never do it.
Australia will destroy us with only two proper fast bowlers. Methews and Perera will be rubbished.
February 27th, 2015 at 8:33 pm
From Asian Mirror.
Kumar Sangakkara has agreed to contest from the UNP from Kandy District for the upcoming parliamentary election.
He should note what happened to Jayasuriya, Ranatunga, Hashan. They LOST their fan base.
Meanwhile TM Dilshan has REFUSED to enter politics. A TRUE gentleman.
IF SL wins the WC, KS will be flying very high and UNP will get too many votes!
February 28th, 2015 at 7:02 pm
Lorenzo,
This person has some brains. He is unable to join a broken SLFP with many thieves, he probably understood the reality ( like me) thus he has no other better choice in politics .
He is a advocate for Yahapalanaya and good news for Sri Lanka that he enters politics.
TM Dilshan is a FOX not a “true gentleman” he wants to please both sides and run his business. This is FOX who stole the wife of best friend. But he is one of the best cricketers in the world we should be proud of him for that.
But your dream will NOT come true, because of politics , bad, brainless and selfish selectors and a captain.
England scored 309 and broke Herath’s hand. We need 11 batsmen (not 8) to win. Let us hope for the best, there is a chance as we are the best batting strength in the world.
February 28th, 2015 at 7:33 pm
Dear Lorenzo,
I too decry the move by popular cricketers taking to politics.
For all his brilliance in cricket, Kumar S has a very negative character trait, which is his apparent GREED for MONEY. I am referring to the numerous ADVERTISEMENTS in which he appears. Not only he but his wife and even his children are dragged into the advertisement mire. KS is swimming in money which is his due and no one can complain about that. But staking his popularity on all sorts of advertisement including very CHEAP ones, I see as a big blot on his character image.
In this respect I salute our World Cup winning captain Arjuna R who NEVER appeared on an advertisement and demeaned himself the way KS does. Arjuna for whatever be his weaknesses has shown himself to be a real gentleman.
To my mind the cricketer who descended most in the esteem of the public is a man with real GUTTER tendencies, and that is Sanath Jayasuriya. His only wish was to stay in the limelight and at whatever be the cost to his reputation: a reputation that is not worth a twopence today.
Mario Perera
Kadawata
February 28th, 2015 at 11:24 pm
That’s right Mario.
Sanath ended up a total disgrace. He is now a frequent visitor to nightclubs, divorced 2 times, goes after married women and a sex addict.
What a disaster!
Sanga worships IPL money. Politics MUST be his next frontier!!
March 1st, 2015 at 1:31 am
Neither could Suranga Lakmal complete his last over after being hauled off for two high full tosses. Yet while Sri Lanka may not have been faultless in the field, they were perfect with the bat.
-Andrew McGlashan is a senior assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
March 2nd, 2015 at 12:26 am
Whilst the SL batting is better than its bowling, SL does not bat deep, with numbers 9 to 11 not expected to make a real contribution with the bat. This is in contrast to say, Australia, where even their specialist bowlers can handle a bat to good effect. For instance, in the team that played NZ on Saturday, Starc who came in at 10 has a top ODI score of 52 not out. Perhaps, as Mario has noted, SL can ill afford to include another specialist bowler but this makes the team very vulnerable when faced with a strong batting side. We saw that against NZ. SL will face a similar challenge when it meets Australia next Sunday. The first five Australian batsmen in the current team have a total of 29 ODI hundreds – that is a formidable record. Anyway, let’s hope the SL boys do well again and have their fair share of good fortune; as MR’s astrologer was quoted as saying, ‘You also need some luck’!
Today’s professional sportspeople earn very good money, much of it coming from commercial endorsements. And I have no problem with those who wish to maximise their earnings from sports so long as they earn their money fairly and without harming or hurting others. My attitude is: ‘Good on you. Nice work if you can get it’.
With KS, we should not overlook the fact that he is also a giver. He gives generously of his time and in other ways including by way of sponsorship of and assistance to cricketers throughout the island. KS is also a fine ambassador for SL cricket and for the island and is a universally admired adornment to the game.
Arguably, it may not be a bad thing if he does enter parliament. Politics is a noble profession and we need persons of integrity and principle and ability to be in parliament. True, in recent times, parliament seems to have attracted the worst of society and include rapists, drug dealers, tax dodgers, murderers, thugs and other such undesirables. It was not always so, and we should not allow parliament to be their exclusive preserve.
Remember the parliamentarians of yore whom we recall with admiration and respect, the likes of Dudley Senanayake, MD Banda, UB Wanninayake, Wilmot Perera and TB Subasinghe who graced parliament with integrity and honourable conduct? We need to regain that ‘ground’. KS seems like an intelligent young man, well educated, with well rounded views, personable and articulate and he could make a very good MP. You don’t necessarily debase yourself by entering parliament; on the contrary, you can make a very positive contribution, and even help lift the public profile of parliament.
Independent,
Why do you “think the smoker Chaminda Vass is jealous of faster bowlers. He wants to make sure no one will surpass him in records”? Have you got good grounds for saying so? If not, you should not impute base motives to someone who has been and continues to be a fine servant of SL cricket. We should not make the mistake of blaming the bowling coach for all the deficiencies of our bowlers. A coach can only do so much. As that old saying goes, you can take a horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink’. Vaas can work with the talent he is presented with. He can coach, advise and show the players how it should be done but he cannot also go in and bowl for them. One great attribute Vaas displayed as a player was his fitness; he looked after his body and rarely missed a game. I wonder how many of our cricketers of today are equally disciplined.
We should also not forget that our failures have not always been because of poor bowling; our brittle batting has also to share in the blame.
March 2nd, 2015 at 4:08 am
Cassandra,
I like to see Sangakkara joining politics. Despite his bad Ad’s ( as Mario pointed out) he has brought fame to Sri Lanka, is a very hard worker with a desire to perfect his game and extremely passionate about his goals. This is good and as you said we badly need politicians of his calibre.
About Vass – He is a bad smoker told us not to tell anyone ( that was when he was still playing for Sri Lanka). But no , I don’t have any good grounds to say “he wants to make sure no one will surpass him in records” agree I should not have said that but I can see he is delaying letting young bowlers to develop, keeping the old ( may be for political pressure).
Look at all other countries, youngsters are doing the fast bowling.
I suspect something going on with the bowling department. Not sure whether they will drop Suranga Lakmal to let Kulasekara play again. Why only his catches are dropped ? He has bowled much better than the figures suggest.
March 8th, 2015 at 12:39 am
Yakpalanaya News
Despite advice from many cricket specialists BIG HEAD fool Jayasuriaya completely ignored all critics and rather than increasing one specialist fast bowler he decreased one.
Results – Australia scored 376 , team was struggling throughout longing for a 2nd Malinga, one was kept on the bench, many were left in Sri Lanka.
Politics is still ruining Sri lanka, despite people giving clear mandate for Yahapalanaya. they are continuing to get Yakpalanaya.