The Duniyah Cricket Blog

I am a massive fan of Kumar Sangakkara and have followed his development as a world class batsman with great interest over the years. Like many others, I have also read with great interest and admiration the plethora of articles that Sangakkara seems to be writing these days to various publications. The following comment made by Sangakkara in his most recent opinion piece published on the cricinfo website on the eve of the Second Test between Sri Lanka and India , most certainly caught my attention.

He writes -:

“Most of the time between Tests has gone in looking after day-to-day stuff - domestic responsibilities, mainly, as well as catching up with friends and relatives after our success in Colombo ”

Given that the above comment came from Sri Lanka ’s most disciplined and hard working cricketer, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out as to what the other lesser mortals in the Sri Lankan team might have been upto in the days after their emphatic first test triumph, leading into the second Test at Galle . In this context the fact that Sri Lanka were humiliated in their so-called fortress at home by 176 runs by an Indian team that was supposedly down and out just a week ago in Colombo, does not by any means come as a surprise to me.

In cricket or in any sport or life in general for that matter, you win some and you lose some and that’s just the way it goes. From my point of view what was most displeasing was the manner in which we succumbed to the Indians more than the loss it self. From day one in Galle , there was no evidence of even an ounce of fight or desire to win by the Sri Lankan cricketers and this was most disappointing. I have always felt that most of Sri Lanka ’s Test cricket under the leadership of Mahela Jayawardena has been played with an intention of not losing rather than with an intention of winning. This is clearly evident when one considers the number of series that we have managed to draw as oppose to win in the past two years or so.

How long are we to allow this negative trend to continue??? What has happened to the ruthless nature of the way we use to play our cricket??? Kumar Sangakkara who use to be the talisman of the team and the man who spurred on the rest of his team-mates has now become quite and a virtual non-factor on the field for the Sri Lankans. Is he a bit too concerned about maintaining a good boy image on the field for reasons best known to him??? I would on any day take the old Kumar Sangakkara who played that feisty in your face brand of cricket and AVG in the mid forties over a Kumar Sangakkara of today who AVGs in the mid-fifties and has become timid and a non factor for us when it comes to on – field energy. The Sri Lankan cricketers have become nauseatingly friendly with opposing players on the field and their approach to the game is as similar to a team going in for a Sunday picnic cricket match. I am aware that the likes of the IPL has improved international player relationships drastically but my advise to our players is to save that camaraderie for after the game and while the game is on play it like professionals and play it ruthlessly and with purpose much like the Indians did in the second Test to bring Team Sri Lanka back down to earth.

The thrashing at Galle couldn’t have come at a better time as we Lankans were almost getting ready to be fooled by a freak Asia Cup final win and a surprise first Test win, both of which transpired as a result of the emergence of one man and that man being Ajantha Mendis. The humiliation that we suffered in the hands of the visiting Indians at our so-called fortress, Galle, personifies very accurately the real state of Sri Lankan cricket at the moment and the steady downward trend that it has experienced since the World Cup final in 2007. It is time for Arjuna Ranatunga and the Sri Lankan selectors to seriously sit down and take some long term decisions for the greater good of Sri Lankan cricket. For many, many years Sri Lankan cricket has been predictable and boring. Team selections have been ridiculously baffling and inexplicably inconsistent with certain players like Upul Tharanga and Jehan Mubarak constantly preferred over the likes of Thilina Kadamby, Ian Daniels and even Michael Vandort and Malinda Warnapura until very recently. This has to stop with immediate effect and the place of no player in the team should be taken for granted by the said players and the selectors must create a selection policy and a system that passes that particular message on to the players in no uncertain terms.

In the 10 year period beginning end of Sept 1998 to-date Sri Lanka has managed to win only one Test series away from home and that was against Pakistan in the early part of 2000. If this is not a problem then I am not sure what is? At home where we have traditionally been hard to beat, we were humbled in a one day series by none other England last October and have now been beaten by India . We were lucky to have won that Test series against England last December thanks mainly to some questionable decisions that went against England during the Kandy Test.

In my opinion the areas in our Test team that needs urgent addressing is the number six batting spot, the role of the wicket keeper and a potential new ball partner for Vassy in the absence of the big three. In order to succeed as a quality Test batsman one has to have a sound temperament and an impeccable technique, both of which are words that Tilekaratne Dilshan probably has no clue about. In this context his continuous selection to our Test team has been baffling to put it mildly. Dilshan has scored just 5 Test hundreds in a Test career spanning nearly nine years and two of those five scores of 100 or above have come against the likes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh . Let us for argument sake compare our number six Test batsman to batters of other teams who do occupy that pivotal spot like, Ian Bell of England, VVS Laxman of India, AB De Villiers for South Africa, Andrew Symonds of Australia or even Misba-ul-Haq for Pakistan and I think you get the picture and where I am going with this. A batsman should be selected to a Test team based on his batting merits and a bowler for his bowling merits. Fielding should never be a criterion to be drafted into a Test team for anyone. This is why I have always had a problem with the selection of Dilshan into our Test team. Thilina Kadambay or Tharanga Paranavithana or even the likes of Chamara Silva or Chamara Kapugedara in my opinion will be a way better option than Dilshan for the number six slot in our Test team.

Nuwan Kulasekara is a very typical wicket to wicket bowler at gentle pace who’s main task is to keep one end tight and get through his quota of ten overs in a one day match with minimal damage and in his defence he has done that job admirably well in the recent past in ONE DAY CRICKET. But giving him the new ball in a Test match????? Are you kidding me???? What happened to Thilina Thushara who bowled well in the WI and also gives us that much needed extra pace option and also what on earth happened to Chanaka Welagedara who made a very impressive debut against England last December ???? Nuwan Kulasekara is another classic case of inconsistent and baseless Team selections.

It goes without saying that Prasanna Jayawardena has been exemplary behind the stumps for us in the past two year period after taking the wicket keeping duties from Kumar Sangakkara. What worries me though is his batting ability or more precisely the lack of it which has clearly been evident in the said period. He AVGs around 22 with the bat (excluding his 100 against Bangladesh) in the said period and has hardly been of any use to us at number 7. How comfortable or conversely, worried should we be about this???

Last but not least the very sticky topic of Captaincy. Mahela Jayawardena’s 2 year period as Captain has neither been here nor there. One can’t exactly say he was poor nor can they give credit to him for being brilliant. Nothing illustrates this point better than the spate of drawn series that he has managed during his time at the helm of Sri Lankan cricket. His strategies have often been predictable and at times defensive. A few things that I noticed during the Galle Test -:

In the Indian first Innings, when VVS Laxman walked into bat, Mendis who had got him out on both occasions in the first Test was given just the one over and taken out of the attack only to be brought back into the attack some 11 overs later by which time VVS had shared a crucial stand of 44 with Sehwag. Predictably, Mendis dismissed Laxman almost immediately but why VVS was allowed a period of 11 overs without facing up to the one man who had bothered him the most, was quite frankly beyond me.

In the Indian 2nd innings, Mendis was introduced in only the 16th over when the score was at 77 for no loss and a lead of 114 was already on the board for India. Jayawardena persisted with the two fast bowlers (if one may call them that) despite the fact that there was nothing in it for them and nor did they have the Sharma type of pace and bounce to extract anything from the wicket either. This flawed approach of our Captain allowed the Indian openers to get plenty of easy runs.

As I write, I have just read that both Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood have resigned from their respective roles as Captain of the Test and One day team of England. They did so supposedly for the greater good of English cricket and their own individual games.

I would have a better chance of going to the moon than expecting a cricketer from our part of the world to do as the above. But the time has come for those who care about and love Sri Lankan cricket to make some tough decisions. This is by no means a knee-jerk reaction to the Test defeat at Galle . As I said before Sri Lankan cricket has been in decline for sometime now and the final of the Asia Cup and the Test win at SSC last week may have enabled us to forget that for the time being but reality has made a timely return and in my opinion it would be a good move to appoint Kumar Sangakkara as Sri Lanka’s Captain and build a team around him sans the likes of Dilshan and so on that will take Sri Lanka cricket to the next level.

Coming back to the Test series and looking ahead to the third and final Test at the P. Sara Stadium, it scares me to think that India’s brilliant come back win at Galle had little or no contributions from their world class BIG FOUR, in Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. One would be ill-advised to believe that an entire series will pass by without these guys getting involved and if and when that happens at the P. Sara stadium, there is little doubt that we will be dead and buried in no time. Either way one thing that is for sure is that Kumar Sangakkara and the rest of the Sri Lankan cricketers will have more important things to do than visiting relatives and friends or watching the F1 or other sporting events on the Telly in the days ahead.

It was the great Martin Luther King jr who once said “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in times of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”

Almost in line with the above the last few days or so has seen some tough cricketers prove their mantle against all odds. England ’s Paul Collingwood scored a brilliant hundred under pressure with his Test career on the line and almost immediately South Africa ’s inspirational Captain Graham Smith scored a magnificent century to guide his team to a famous series win over England . Sri Lanka has been humiliated by a brilliant Indian team making a perfect come back after their big loss at the SSC. Does Mahela Jayawardena and his players have what it takes it to make a strong come back at the P. Sara stadium and win the series against the Indians? Smart money would say HELL NO!