In this transient stage of Sri Lanka Cricket, the nation is frantically in search of young men who will stand up and take on the decree.
It is puzzling why copiously talented young players seem inapt to covert ability into form. Be it temperament, adjusting to situations or plain old confidence it is not forthcoming.
For as long as one can remember the call has been to draft the upcoming players into the national team. This has been the demand from many selection panels gone before.
To give the selectors their due they have allowed an airing to a host of youngsters over the last couple of years and despite calls that some players were given more opportunity than others, by and large Sri Lanka’s young have come and perished unable to show some consistency. The selector cannot be incessantly blamed for these players not blossoming out.
There have even been accusations that the selectors clung on too much to the senior players without giving the opportunity to the impending. The rotation policy adopted by the present selectors headed by the legendary Sanath Jayasuriya over the T20 games vs South Africa where the backbone of the Sri Lankan batting Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara and T M Dilshan all in the evening of their careers being rested one at a time is a clear mandate to the younger players to showcase themselves. Yet again, albeit home soil they flop!
This failure to deliver a simple T20 chase by young, robust and flamboyant players where once again the old men are left to hold the fort, bore ample testament to justify why the selectors are hard-pressed to be reliant on the new. It remains a national mystery why none of these youngsters have shown their wares and the selectors have been put in a quandary as to whom to hand-over the legacy of Sri Lanka Cricket. If anything the entire cricketing think tank must ponder this problem first.
It is an age old delinquent that the newly drafted take yards of time to develop into match winners. This was certainly the case even with the 3 veterans holding the reigns right now. Even though Jayawardena, Sangakkara and Dilshan are playing the best cricket of their lives at present, but back then same questions were asked; when will they come good ?
The system that does not give a higher level of first class competition is an aspect that is blamed. If one were to take an example; the IPL, where India unearth talented and gutty youngsters at a whim and give them full go and experience rendezvousing with the best of the world is one such. Playing in a comfort zone with a license to kill, where not too much is expected of them with the senior team taking most of the pressure, is true a bolster to their confidence. This has been noted by many as the reason for India’s sustained success of late with the rest of the world finding it hard to compete with this.
Perhaps it is time for Sri Lanka to try something similar. Giving each of their young in turn a stay at the top of the order instead of budding them in pressure situations first up could be away. Another option could the selectors picking pure talent and backing it fully allowing the youngster to nestle in its position with instead of playing to the gallery and trying out each upcoming player. The question is can Sri Lanka can afford that luxury at this point in time?
In reality Sri Lanka Cricket must be faulted not so much in the selection policy but its inability to solve this inherent issue where the young take almost a cricketing career to develop into match winners.
