We’ve been here before: All these naysayers forget how pitifully defending champions Sri Lanka played at the 1999 World Cup in England[/caption]
SLC selectors and the Technical Committee own this mess
The three were promptly sent back to Sri Lanka by the management. So far, about the only pro-active and sensible team decision taken by Sri Lanka on this forgettable tour. Public has been told by numerous Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials that a disciplinary inquiry will be held and the players will be severely dealt with. What is meant by severely has not been explained, nor who will be conducting the inquiry. The three players in question, the Vice Captain and two batters have had run-ins with team management previously but have escaped those run-ins largely unscathed. So unscathed that one was offered the most lucrative annual contract and one of the others was offered the Vice Captaincy.
Adding insult to nit-wittedness, the selectors had dropped the Vice Captain from the second ODI and didn’t even play their highest paid player in the two ODIs.
When Kusal Perera was gifted the ODI captaincy, it seemed flaky because Perera’s leadership record was uninspiring. He had led the Kandy Tuskers in the inaugural 2020 Lanka Premier League (LPL) and the team ended with a stark 2-6 record and finished last among the participants. Kusal Perera was also dropped from the recently concluded tour of the West Indies. The man who led his team to a last-place finish and not considered good enough to make the team was suddenly elevated to the position of Captain of a team desperately short of confidence, wins and embroiled in an ugly contract dispute with the administration.
If those were not daunting enough, selectors also decided that Kusal Perera should open batting as well as keep wickets. It is one thing to put your faith in hope instead of despair and decisions of this nature have an element of risk, but it is criminally irresponsible for the selectors to add such burdens on their Captain under these circumstances.
If the selectors wanted Kusal Perera to fail as Captain, they could not have penned a better script than this one. To depict Kusal Perera’s captaincy as poor would be an act of kindness. His on-field tactics were unimaginative when the need of the hour was to be creative, unorthodox, and daring. So were team selections.
Who will captain Sri Lanka?
Selectors have painted themselves to a corner on this front by their dumbfounding actions. Their first choice has come a cropper and it is hard to imagine Kusal Perera continuing as Captain beyond this tour. Selectors’ second choice has confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt that he is not fit to don the national uniform let alone assume a leadership role. Selectors have also declared that they are seeking a way forward without recalling the services of past Captains a la Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, and Dimuth Karunaratne (a reasonable call going by past happenings and the need of the team to transition to the next generation of players).
Amidst all the hullabaloo in England, SLC has extended contracts to 39 players who are not on tour. Obviously, the move is designed to pressure those who are holding out on signing the contracts on offer. A sensible move from an organisation not known for proactive and sensible behaviour. Times they’re a changing, it is hoped.
The inclusion of Angelo Perera in the senior contract category is an interesting one in the current context. Angelo Perera has played ODI cricket for Sri Lanka, albeit briefly. More importantly, he has a decent track record as a Captain. In 2017 he led Sri Lanka to victory at the Emerging Cup in Bangladesh and earlier this season led his club side NCC to victory in the domestic Premier Limited-Over tournament. Perera has also been a prolific scorer in the domestic season for the past few years.
Are the selectors mulling Angelo Perera as captaincy cover for Kusal Perera? If so, no one should find fault with the selectors because it is a logical and reasonable consideration.
A far superior consideration than going back to the past of Mathews, Chandimal, or Karunaratne.
Squad positives
In Hasaranga, Chameera, Dananjaya de Silva, Chamika Karunaratne, Binura Fernando, Asalanka, Nissanka, Oshada, and Avishka Fernando, Ramesh Mendis and Praveen Jayawickrame, Sri Lanka has a set of players who could be modelled into a competitive team. Obviously, most of them need many more exposures and guidance and the squad will need to expand to include at least two wicket-keepers as well as bowling cover for the pacies for the workloads of Chameera and Binura Fernando will have to be carefully managed to avoid injuries.
Plus, a leader.
We’ve been here before
Despite all the hand-wringing of experts, legends, and perennial doomsday prophets, this Sri Lanka squad has enough quality players to provide the nucleus for the revival of limited-overs cricket, especially ODI cricket. All these naysayers forget how pitifully defending champions Sri Lanka played at the 1999 World Cup in England.
At that World Cup SL lost three of the five group stage matches and failed to qualify for the next round. Wins were against Kenya and Zimbabwe and marginal. Losses were comprehensive to England (by eight wickets), South Africa (89 runs) and India (157 runs). There were rumours of poor discipline, rice and curry binges etc making the rounds then and Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, and Duleep Mendis were promptly sacked as Captain, Vice Captain and Manager. Then too, apocalyptic predictions of coming cricketing doom were proclaimed by the pundits.
We tend to forget that Sri Lanka is a country that keeps electing the same lawmakers repeatedly despite their colossal blunders and pillage hoping that the next time around, the same lot will miraculously redeem themselves.
In this instance, Promodya Wickramasinghe’s committee is seeking a new way forward by casting aside seniors who paved the path to the current imbroglio. The Technical Committee’s ill-timed and mean-spirited interference has not helped Wickramasinghe’s task. These two committees and Shammi Silva’s executive committee must find common ground to lift the game from the funk of today.
That is their job. Sri Lanka’s cricket has withstood many impending dooms and will, this one as well, but the task could be made a lot easier if the three committees mentioned worked as a team instead of rival warlords.