{"id":69912,"date":"2017-09-20T14:23:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T21:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=69912"},"modified":"2017-09-20T14:23:44","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T21:23:44","slug":"sri-lanka-qualified-as-8th-team-for-icc-world-cup-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/09\/20\/sri-lanka-qualified-as-8th-team-for-icc-world-cup-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"SRI LANKA QUALIFIED AS 8TH TEAM FOR ICC WORLD CUP 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By M D P DISSANAYAKE<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

It has been a nervous waiting for Sri Lankan cricketing fans to see the initial outcome of England v West Indies matches.\u00a0\u00a0 As a result of West Indies seven-wicket defeat against England in the first ODI at Old Trafford, Sri Lanka squeezed into the top 8 teams, viz. Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and\u00a0 South Africa.<\/p>\n

In preparation for the major event, Sri Lanka will have ample opportunities to improve its performances.\u00a0\u00a0 Its busy schedule of 36 matches (subject to change) expected to be played prior to World Cup includes:<\/p>\n

5 ODI against Pakistan in Dec 2017<\/p>\n

3 ODI against Bangladesh in January 2018<\/p>\n

5 ODI against India in March<\/p>\n

5 ODI against West Indies in June<\/p>\n

5 ODI against England in October<\/p>\n

3 ODI against New Zealand in December<\/p>\n

5 ODI against Australia in January 2019<\/p>\n

5 ODI against South Africa in March<\/p>\n

Of the top eight teams, unfortunately the management of Sri Lankan cricket is in an absolute mess.\u00a0 The seasoned skipper Angelo Mathews resigned under pressure, since then game of musical chairs took place for the position of Skipper.\u00a0 Upul Tharanga, my opinion is the second best to Angelow, yet he seems to have a problem of managing over rate.\u00a0 Upul on the other hand had been a consistent performer with the bat\u00a0 with clever field placements.\u00a0 He also command respect from the team.<\/p>\n

Changing Sanath Jayasuriya with Graeme\u00a0 Labrooy is an idiotic move. Bringing Asanka Gurusinghe from Melbourne, was another\u00a0 wrong move.\u00a0 The current Minister Mr Dayasiri Jayasekera\u00a0 and Thilanga Sumathipala have messed up the cricket administration.\u00a0 They failed to motivate the players, instead played the role of Bull in the China shop.<\/p>\n

These weaknesses place an additional pressure on the skipper and players.\u00a0 We are still hunting for a Head Coach.\u00a0 All other 7 teams have been able to establish a long term leadership succession with clear career path.\u00a0 Sri Lanka has failed in this key area.<\/p>\n

Once again, direct involvement of Mahela, Kumar, Dilshan, Murali, Sanath, Arjuna and Vaas at the top of cricket administration is vital.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By M D P DISSANAYAKE It has been a nervous waiting for Sri Lankan cricketing fans to see the initial outcome of England v West Indies matches.\u00a0\u00a0 As a result of West Indies seven-wicket defeat against England in the first ODI at Old Trafford, Sri Lanka squeezed into the top 8 teams, viz. Australia, Bangladesh, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-m-d-p-dissanayake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}