When the current administration took office, their predecessors had prepared an excellent proposal to address the issues facing domestic cricket. Instead of implementing the proposal, they increased the number of First Class teams to 24 to please the clubs who had elected them to office.
by Rex Clementine
Don’t be surprised if Sri Lanka Cricket block all calls coming from Kabul. Now that Afghanistan is a Test playing nation, the Afghans will be keen to get a nation with a rich cricket tradition to play their inaugural Test match. Given the status of the national cricket team at present, SLC will be keen to block all calls coming from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. At the moment even victory against Afghanistan is not certain for Sri Lanka.
On Saturday, as Sri Lanka headed towards another crushing defeat in the second Test against India at SSC, many would have wondered the reason for their recent slump. Two years ago when India arrived in Sri Lanka, the tourists won the series, but it was a hard fought contest. In 2017, India are ranked number one while Sri Lanka are ranked number seven and the gap between the two sides is so vast.
How come in two years time the two sides have gone in opposite directions is a pertinent question to ask? Sri Lanka’s opener Dimuth Karunaratne, who speaks so intelligently at media briefings, gave us some insight.
“The last time India toured here, we had Sanga. This time we have no Sanga,” Karunaratne said casually before going onto address the real issue.
“Over the years, India have played good cricket. They’ve played a lot of IPL and First-Class cricket. In Sri Lanka, we only have eight to ten domestic matches in a season. Then we have five one-dayers. That’s it for the season. I think that’s the main reason (why we have struggled). We have to play more First-Class cricket and then we can find more players who can dominate the game. That’s what SLC has to work on for the players,” Karunaratne added.
That’s only one point Karunaratne reiterated but what he didn’t say was how SLC has destroyed domestic cricket.
When the current administration was elected, we had 14 teams playing First Class cricket. That number itself is way too many. Australia only has five teams playing Sheffield Shield; their First Class tournament. So instead of cutting down the numbers drastically, SLC granted First Class status to ten more teams. So we now have 24 teams playing First Class cricket! Once a club competes in First Class competition, the grants they receive from SLC become significant as well. That means even Maligawatta United would be hell bent on playing First Class cricket.
Sri Lanka did have a very effective First Class competition a few years ago – the Inter-Provincial tournament comprising five teams. But that was scrapped a few years ago. The clubs that have a significant hold on SLC cricket elections don’t fancy the Inter-Provincial tournament for the simple reason that it downgrades them. So one of the pledges that candidates during cricket election campaigns make is that they will not devalue club cricket when elected.
With so many First Class teams around, the level of competition has got diluted significantly as well. The club tournament games last three days while the Inter-Provincial games go on for four days and that’s the closest you get to play Test cricket. The level of competition is also extremely high as only the top 75 players in the country are on show compared to the club tournament which features more than 500 players.
Since the number of First Class teams were bloated, Sri Lanka have been whitewashed 3-0 in Tests and 5-0 in ODIs in South Africa, the national team suffered a first ever Test defeat to Bangladesh while Zimbabwe beat them in an ODI series for the first time and nearly won the one off Test as well. Given the status quo, SLC should not entertain any requests for bilateral series from Afghanistan and Ireland, the latest additions to Test cricket.
Former captain Mahela Jayawardene presented a comprehensive programme that was meant to uplift domestic cricket through the Inter-Provincial competition. Often, you tend to look with suspicion at anything that comes out of Perera Gardens, but a closer look at the proposal which suggested a wide-ranging overhaul including school cricket and administrative structure looked impressive.
The study and the submission of report was done during the tenure of Sidath Wettimuny as the head of SLC, but before it could be implemented, Wettimuny had to vacate his seat as the Sports Ministry convened the cricket elections. The change of administration has seen the failure to implement the new structure and that exactly is the reason why Sri Lanka has hit new lows in recent times.
Karunaratne and Jayawardene aren’t the only guys who have pleaded to overhaul First Class cricket. Another former captain, Kumar Sangakkara spoke so eloquently in an interview in June on the need to change the domestic structure.
“We need to look at our First-Class cricket very seriously. Look at Australia, all their senior players left at the same time. They struggled for a year, but because of the strength of their First-Class structure, their transition period is very short. They adapt quickly and they rebuild very quickly,” Sangakkara said.
“I am going to say it again, I have said it before and so many others have said it before. There has been so much written about it and that’s the revamping of our cricket. If you don’t challenge, we are going to lose some of the best players we have and are going to see a stagnation of talent and potential. In the first year of an international cricketer, you don’t want to teach them how to play First-Class cricket,” Sangakkara added.
With the national team in such dire straits, now the onus is on SLC to fix the problem. Rather than trying to please the people who elect them to office, the board needs to set aside its ego and look at solutions that will fix the problem.
