Retired cricketing legend Mahela Jayawardene is set to help Sri Lanka to formally restructure its domestic and junior cricket fixtures Ceylon Today learns.
Jayawardene retired from ODI cricket after the recently concluded World Cup. He described about a possible way of helping Sri Lanka Cricket after calling it a day during Sri Lanka’s tour of India last year. At the time he said his previous proposal regarding changing domestic and under-19 structures, which he submitted a few years ago, must be in someone’s dustbin by now, as there was no talk about that even after years of proposing it.
As for him, main reason for India’s supremacy in cricket isn’t just the money or IPL, but the under-19 four-day tournament between their states, which imparts valuable lessons of patience, temperament and many other factors for cricketers during a young age.
If the school is not ready to play four days due to their five days per week education system, Jayawardene had suggested why not play four-day series between Provincial under-19 teams at least during the vacation period.
Back then Jayawardene was in doubt whether the authorities will allow him to do what he wants. But, given the opportunity, he is very much capable and willing to start the four-day structure and a cricket academy, which will select budding young players and make them professional cricketers for the future, providing all necessary facilities such as education, cricket and other soft skills.
Also he mentioned about the shortcomings of the current domestic cricket structure where club cricketers get step-motherly treatment.
He also spoke of the importance of upgrading the level of competition and quality of competition among clubs and increasing their payment in order to help them play the season without worries. Further, he spoke about his plan to start the much needed junior cricket academies in Sri Lanka as he said Sri Lanka was still depending on schools to produce cricketing stars for the country, which had produced many in the past including himself. Yet the school cricket system hasn’t been updated putting the future of Sri Lanka cricket in jeopardy.
Jayawardene explained that the school cricket structure is one of the most corrupt systems in Sri Lanka, where schoolmasters who run the system earn even from small objects, such as new leather balls.
He said failing to change this system will very much sound the death knell of Sri Lanka cricket in the near future.
