TISSERA PERERA MUST BE TOSSED OUT OF THE ODI TEAM-NEED A POOL OF ALL ROUNDERS TO ENSURE PLACE IN TOP 8
Posted on March 30th, 2017
By M D P DISSANAYAKE
Sri Lanka is in danger of not meeting a spot in the top 8 Test Teams, to be able to automatically qualify for the 2019 ODI World Cup. Judging by the current standings and the upcoming matches between now and September this year ( cut-off date ) the following Test Teams are vying for the 7 and 8 spots. They are: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Angelow Mathews role as Sri Lanka skipper has not improved Sri Lanka rankings for the past few years. Physically he has not been fully fit on most of the recent years. Consequently, his overall contribution as an all rounder has eroded. The next player in the team under the disguise of an all rounder is Tissara Perera. He is a disaster. Consistently inconsistent, totally unreliable and undependable, has failed to score a single century even though he has played well over 100 one day internationals. The bowling average was also above 30 and his fielding had been a nightmare. He has never taken 5 wicket haul so far in any single match. But he has sufficient stock of flesh, massive wealth through IPL and abundance of Gold, but less than an ounce of cricketing brain. He is impatient and is not a role model for young players.
With Sanath Jayasuriya at the helm, we cannot understand what qualifies Tissara Perera to be in the team. We need several all rounders in the team. After Sanath Jayasuriya, the only other all rounder we had was Dilshan Tilekeratne. There is no one to match Dilshan in field, in the team now.
We ask the decision makers to make a thorough assessment before it is too late. In order to build a massive pool of all rounders, more specialised training and development programs must be put in place for players such as Milinda Siriwardene, Chamara kapugedera, Asela Gunaratne, Dananjaya De Silva, Nuwan Kulasekera, Sekkuge Prasanna, Jeevan Mendis, Chaturanga De Silva, Sachit Pathirana and Isuru Udana. These 10 all rounders will provide the backbone for the team. Please stop USING players in stop-gap ad-hoc manner, just to win matches. For example: recalling Nuwan Kulasekera to the team after losing to Bangladesh.
Wicket keepers by nature are poor fielders and we have far too many of them in the regular team. We need at least 5 all rounders instead in every match capable of bowling a minimum of 30 overs and scoring minimum 90 runs.
We all acknowledge that politics dominate Sri Lankan Cricket. We need to pool the local resources of Arjuna Ranatunga, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Dilshan Tilekeratne, Muthtiah Muralithan, Jehan Mubarak to provide support for Sanath Jayasuriya.
We have failed to recognize the calibre of local talents in offering key coaching positions. We have been chasing foreigners, except David Whatmore no one else made a genuine contribution. At half the cost of a foreign coach, we could find many super past players who can speak our language, understand the culture.
Of course they might not understand the dirty politics. Neither foreign coaches did.
March 30th, 2017 at 6:20 pm
ICC considers ODI rankings for the top 8 teams for the World Cup (not Test rankings). Sri Lanka is placed sixth and is safe.
I agree Angelo has done enormous damage to the team as captain. He must not be accepted back to captaincy. He still has plenty of runs left in him so must be allowed to play. I agree that we need all-rounders but not so many. Two all-rounders are sufficient as things stand. I also agree the madness of going after foreign coaches is unwise. However, I strongly disagree on Arjuna Ranatunga, Mahela Jayawardene, Muthtiah Muralithan and Jehan Mubarak having anything to do with it.
Recycling players including Tharanga and Nuwan is unwise. They have no potential for 2019.
The game has changed from 1996 with powerplays and the T20 mindset. Sadly our ODI team hasn’t adapted well. We have very few players with the ability to score sixes. Our top order is made up of slow starters adding pressure to lower order batsmen.
March 31st, 2017 at 6:53 am
MDP good article. Everybody should open their eyes and take quick action to take our cricket in the correct path before politics destroy our sports. Cricket President and the selectors should resign or be sacked for all the blunders they did to our cricket after they took over our cricket. When we have enough young talented players these selectors continuesly giving chance to old tired looking players like Kulasekara and Thisara Perera Why? We should stop giving chances to these players anymore. We need to correct ourselves as soon as possible to face the next world cup. Training with good coaches is very important and selection should be in progress now itself. Forget the experience, give the chance only to new players who are best of best without any favoritism. Cricket lovers are watching and hope something good will come up for Srilankan cricket.
April 1st, 2017 at 1:45 pm
“I thought Thisara Perera was exceptional today,” Tharanga said. “He showed lot of maturity during his knock. He took his time and finished the innings well. He understood his role, and he did this throughout this series. He realised that he needed to come up with big efforts. Today, we were in a tough position. He was the only recognised batter, and his approach was good – he showed a lot of responsibility.”
Without Thisara Perera we could have lost this match.
April 1st, 2017 at 4:09 pm
The bad part of the win is the team relied heavily on Tharanga and Nuwan for it having tried out 44 players since WC2015. They have no potential for WC2019. We must not forget we were playing in home conditions against Bangladesh! Long term team development has been compromised yet again for a short term win. Its only justification is making better grades for the September review by ICC. We are placed sixth in ODI rankings and safe.
Chandimal and Kusal Mendis as usual scored at a slow rate adding pressure to lower end batsmen. Chandimal must go or increase the strike rate dramatically. These are the spots occupied by Sanga and Mahela. It is obvious Kusal and Chandimal are not the combination for it. As long as two slow run-getters are here, there is a role for Thisara to undo the damage of slow strike rate. Sadly, given the dearth of players who can confidently and repeatedly hit sixes and as there are slow scorers ahead of him, Thisara must stay.
Although Prasanna was handy with the ball, he has been a failure with the bat in ODIs. He is a specialised T20 player.
Champions trophy will have to be faced better, especially the match against Pakistan to cement our ODI grades.
April 1st, 2017 at 4:21 pm
In one of the recent 5-day tests, Chandimal showed the value of his skill and experience by staying at the crease in a blockathon until the time was ripe to unleash his bat.
That was a marvellous demonstration of cricketing maturity that many of the newer players, like ouf current hero Kusal Mendis, lack.
Therefore, I think we need of MIX of experience and promising new talent if we are to do well in WC2019.
April 1st, 2017 at 5:27 pm
@Ananda
Both of them are good Test players but they have to improve their strike rate to fit into modern ODI format. Kusal has to reduce his adaption time as well. Aravinda-Arjuna (discouting Gurusinghe) and Sanga-Mahela occupied these spots. Although times have changed and strike rates have vastly improved, these are the slots for world beating comparatively high strike rates continuing from opening batsmen.