Big Cleanup Needed For Sri Lanka Cricket.
Posted on July 29th, 2017
Top Spin By Suni
July.31st 2017
This is indeed a bold topic as there is sufficient evidence to beleive Sri Lanka’s cricketing shortcomings have been compounded by the inadequacies of the selection staff particularly at the highest level as Sri Lanka meanders into the loss column – painful to watch as they slip deeper into the mire.The players are partially to blame but today they seem to have become players with little or no direction as the head honchos at administrative level play their own brand of pandu and continue unrestricted!
The latest loss to India at Test level bears rank testimony to this as well as the humiliation suffered at the hands of Zimbabwe where Sri Lanka has taken on the guise of a rudderless ship manned by incompetent personnel on a course towards destruction.It may not have been the time appropriate for Angelo Mathews to quit his captaincy in disgust but his sentiments are understandable.He was after all one of the up and coming young captains of the day when he started according to many cricketing authorities where to a degree he did indeed live upto the reputation.
All this is disheartening for a team with its past glory and accomplishments particularly when some of these incompetents refered to were once the contributors towards the past glory but seem to have lost their way, are worthless and self centered individuals intent on lining their own pockets only, in addition to their huge ego trips some bringing Sri Lanka to disrepute through their unscrupulous wheeling and dealing and authoritative intimidation and mistreatment of players some of whom have even had their careers jeapordized beyond reprieve.
While it is no speculation that the root cause of Sri Lanka’s problems have been brought on by decisions made at administrative level mostly, it is also somewhat definitive that lack of savvy and the incapacity to make judicious decisions relative to selection have been displayed by its so called adjudicators who have virtually bungled their way through sheer incompetence and landed Sri Lanka Cricket in the mess it is in today.
It is pathetic to see how he team has been struggling lately albeit compounded by injuries to players who would have made a difference but ironically there have been players who could have performed equitably to the task, unjustifiably overlooked for selection so what has our high and mighty chairman of selectors to say in his defence that he has blundered together with the rest of the selection team and the compulsive gambling habits of the president of Sri Lanka cricket?
True enough the Sri Lankans have been hit by injury and many who may have made a difference have been sidelined as a result and it brings to bear the importance of blooding young players which certainly is no sin looking towards the future of the team but when the exclusion of key players currently in form appear to be deliberately motivated for reasons incomprehensible as well as petty as appears to be the case in many instances there seems to be something lacking in the work ethic as well as credibility of those responsible.
Perhaps it is high time Sri Lanka focussed on rebuilding an all round bowling attack and not depend as much as they do on spin alone despite the high quality of the young spinners available today and the rhetoric some pundits indulge in towards its merit!.
Concurrently the emerging young batsmen need to be put through a stringent crash course on how to face upto world class bowlers who make such a piecemeal of the Lankan Batting at times laced in blunders and bad judgement.
The current performances at Test level are definitely in a shambles and the teams have not proved their mettle in the shorter versions of the game either and gone are the laurels they secured at World Cup, Champions Trophy and T-20 level in the past where the absence of former greats like Sangakkara, Dilshan and Jayawardena have become quite conspicuous!
A big cleanup of Sri Lanka Cricket at administrative level must surely be in the offing and the overall management needing to be in the hands of straight laced individuals who understand the game, not biased through political clout and are qualified for the responsibility!!
July 29th, 2017 at 4:40 pm
It is very clear that Herat was not 100% even before the test match. Selectors must be fools not to understand the weakness of spin attack having seen how they got hammered by Zimbabwe lower order. What do you expect from Indians ? They should have palyed Pushpakumara instea of Herat, knowing he had a finger injury. Hanging onto individual big names than selecting based on merit has brought us destruction.
Exactly the same on politics.
July 30th, 2017 at 8:49 am
Big Cleanup Needed For Sri Lanka Cricket. – when a businessman politician became the head iof Cricket, what you say is obvious.
IF he is going to get Coca cola sponser cricket, god help the young generation as they drink high sugar, high phosporic acid and get fat and sick.
July 31st, 2017 at 6:50 am
At least when Arjuna held the reins even briefly there was some order and discipline based on his cricket sense.
True enough his brother let the side down through indiscretions for which he was incarcerated but the present setup is an affront to the past glory of what the country achieved through magnificient players.Indeed a big shakeup looks like the solution where egoists and embezzlers need to be booted out!
The integrity and decorum of Sri Lanka cricket that once was needs to be restored. Selecting injured players based on reputation alone is ridiculous as there is a wealth of healthy talent which needs to be accommodated. Lets hope the next Test and the rest of the series against India will show better results. As proven now there was some sense in what the Sports Minister said about fitness and conditioning and unfit or out of form players need to be sidelined and their places given to the more deserving who have been overlooked in the past.Chairman of selectors Pl take note!