The national cricket team will return home on Sunday after their final World Cup clash against India on Saturday at Leeds. The team went into the ten-nation competition with not much hope, but they have done reasonably well and probably would end the competition at number six.
There are arguments that if not for the two rain affected games in Bristol, the team could have made it to the last four. Sensible argument, but let’s leave that for another day. Now that the World Cup disappointment is over, it’s an opportunity for us to take stock and to plan for the events that are coming up.
The immediate challenge for the team would be the bilateral series against Bangladesh and New Zealand. But the larger picture will be what the team will do to qualify for the World T-20 in Australia next year.
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For a team that reached two World T-20 finals and won the championship once in the last ten years, Sri Lanka’s current ranking of eighth is not a fair reflection of their abilities. One reason why other teams have made giant strides in the shortest format of the game is that they have vibrant T-20 Leagues that attracts overseas signings. This helps the development of younger local players who are able to pick the brains of international stars.
Time and again you witness players like Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya crediting Lasith Malinga for their development during their time spent together at Mumbai Indians.
The need for a franchise based tournament has been strongly felt and Sri Lanka Cricket had done much ground work to kick start the tournament two years ago when it was cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances. To their credit, SLC had got the consent of the Board of Control for Cricket in India as well to get some of their players to be involved in the competition. This would have certainly added to the commercial value of the event too. Hopefully, SLC will not leave any stone unturned in their attempt to stage a franchise based T-20 competition.
Since the last World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where the team had some high profile retirements, the transition has taken longer for Sri Lanka than what people would have liked. One problem has been that players identified have been not presevered with.
Some special talents have come along in the last 18 months and you would hope that those identified will be given a longer rope to find their feet in international cricket. As Tom Moody, one of Sri Lanka’s successful coaches, once said, the easiest for a young player is his first year in international cricket where the opponents are still to identify his flaws.
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In August, Sri Lanka will play three T-20 Internationals against New Zealand at home followed by three T-20s in Australia in October. These games give the selectors an opportunity to pick a core group of players and persist with them with the World T-20 in mind. A lot is at stake during the World T-20.
Injuries have been another area that has affected the team immensely. All fast bowlers, except for Suranga Lakmal have been on the mend forcing Sri Lanka to field second string attacks. Too much cricket has been put out as one reason for the amount of injuries the bowlers have suffered. Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera and Shehan Madushanka are some of the quickest bowlers in the country, but none of them have been available for a full series breaking down with injuries. One way for the authorities to overcome the problem is to identify players for different formats and stick with it without chopping and changing.
It is also important to invest on medical facilities and qualified staff to both prevent injuries and look after the players during their recoveries. Pity the players whose return to competitive cricket has been held up due to wrong diagnosis of injuries or rehabilitation going wrong. Dhammika Prasad is a classic example.
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Another area that needs to be addressed urgently is giving the selectors a proper time frame rather than mere one year terms. Between the 2015 World Cup and the 2019 event, over a four year period, we have had four different selection panels and there have been constant change of policies and personnel. That has not been ideal. At least, the selectors need to be given a two year tenure and in a perfect case scenario, a four year cycle would be nice. This gives them an opportunity to keep a track of players’ performance and continue with policies.
The same applies for the coaching staff and captains. Since January 2018, we have had four different captains in ODI cricket alone. A review of the team’s World Cup performance and what needs to be done is the best way forward for the sport.
