The talk of the town has been the new selection strategy adopted by Sri Lanka’s new selection committee headed by Pramodya Wickramasinghe which has brought new leadership for the Sri Lanka ODI team.
The selectors have taken a bold decision to pump young cricketers to the ODI team while ruffling a few feathers in dropping seniors like Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal.
The Wickramasinghe led selection committee has opted for this youth strategy targeting the 2023 ODI world cup which will be held in India. The strategy reminds us of a similar incident which occurred 22 years ago when the Sidath Wettimuny led selection committee took similar measures in opting for a youth strategy after Sri Lanka failed to defend the World Cup title in 1999.
Sri Lanka, the 1996 world cup winning team came to the 1999 world cup tournament with the aim of defending the trophy but they failed to do so as they were knocked out in the group stage, winning only 2 games out of 5 played. The two wins came against Zimbabwe and Kenya.
Straight after the conclusion of the disastrous world cup campaign, Sidath Wettimuny was appointed as the chairman of selectors to make necessary changes in order to make the Sri Lanka team competitive again.
The Wettimuny led selection committee opted for a youth strategy targeting the 2003 ODI World Cup and as a result, several senior cricketers were dropped from the team.
The following series post 1999 world cup was a one-day triangular series against Australia and India. The Wettimuny led selection committee brought in young cricketers Avishka Gunawardana, Russel Arnold, Indika de Saram, Chamara Silva, Suresh Perera and Nimesh Perera to the ODI squad.
Senior cricketers paid the heavy price for the failure to defend the World Cup successfully in England. Omitted players included Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva – two of the heavyweights in Sri Lankan cricket team who served the country for over a decade, with more than 500 one-day appearances and more than 15,000 runs between them.
In addition, two other experienced and long-serving batsmen Roshan Mahanama and Hashan Tillekeratne were dropped from the squad. The dashing left hander Sanath Jayasuriya aged 30, was appointed as the ODI captain while 22-year-old Mahela Jayawardene was named his deputy.
It was turned out to be a great decision as the Sri Lanka ODI side revived their fortunes and ended as semi-finalists in the 2003 ODI world cup. During this period (1999 to 2003), the Sri Lanka ODI team played 118 matches and managed to win 67 of them recording a win percentage of 56.77.
However, only time will tell whether the same line of thinking of the new selection committee can produce positive results for the Sri Lankan team in the future.
