Many moons ago Fast Bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake went up to former cricketer S. Skandakumar and informed him that there’s this rural farmer’s son of less than modest means in the remote south who had the potential as a fast bowler. Skanda, currently Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Australia, didn’t hesitate to help. Tamil Union has always been the home for talented outstation underprivileged cricketers and the player was taken under the club’s wings. This week he went onto achieve something unique, becoming the first Asian captain to win a Test match in Barbados. Suranga Lakmal is his name.
There are some peculiarities in cricket. Australians for example very rarely hand the Test captaincy to wicketkeepers until they were forced to break the rule recently. Most teams are also reluctant to hand the Test captaincy to fast bowlers. Sri Lanka is notorious for this. Never in their history, had a fast bowler captained in Test cricket and Lakmal broke the tradition becoming the 16th Sri Lankan to lead the side after captain Dinesh Chandimal was suspended.
There was a huge sigh of relief as Sri Lanka squared the three-match series against West Indies following their tense four wickets win in Barbados. However, this was a series that you expected Sri Lanka to win handsomely and not finish one each. The preparation that the tourists had put in, the investment they had made via the residential training camp in Kandy and bringing in resource persons were immense. Furthermore, you expect nothing but a series win against ninth-ranked West Indies. All in all, this was a tour where the Sri Lankans underachieved.
They could have done a few things better though. When SLC negotiated with Nic Pothas to end his tenure on mutual consent, the South African was ready to withdraw. So Pothas and SLC parted ways three months before his contract expired.
Stuart Law is a smart bloke. It was he who ended Queensland’s 63-year drought to win the Sheffield Shield in 1995. He was Queensland’s captain then. Currently, he is the Head Coach of West Indies. Law saw an opportunity when SLC and Pothas parted ways. Quickly West Indies drafted Pothas into the system. Officially it was supposed to be a three-month stint working specifically on fielding and wicket keeping; unofficially Pothas was passing on lot more insight.
The threat of spin was negated by a thick cover of grass during all three Tests. Sri Lanka predicted well and were clever enough to pack the side with several fast bowlers, but faulted in other vital selections. One area that Sri Lanka struggled throughout the series was inability of the openers to give the side a decent start.
The highest partnership for the first wicket came in St. Lucia when the openers added 32 runs. Other than that, on two occasions the first wicket fell with no runs on the board and on another occasion, the total was two when the opening batsman was dismissed. Mahela Udawatte cut a sorry figure finishing with scores of 0, 19, 4 and 0. Kusal Janith Perera opening the innings in ODI cricket with fielding restrictions on is understandable, but there’s a risk involved when he opens in Test cricket. In the five innings he opened, KJP was dismissed twice without scoring. His highest score on tour was 32. It was a blessing in disguise that KJP was injured prior to Sri Lanka’s second innings in Barbados and was unable to open. He was well equipped to handle the older ball with the team five wickets down and his contribution was a key factor in helping Sri Lanka to win the final Test. The middle order is where KJP belongs in Tests.
Would Kaushal Silva have been a better choice as an opener? He has been the unsung hero during some of Sri Lanka’s outstanding overseas wins like England 2014 and UAE 2017. When wickets are tailor-made for fast bowlers, Silva brings out his best batting through tough phases and taking the shine off the new ball. With his excellent fielding at short leg and being a wonderful team man, he should have been at least called up when the other regular opener – Dimuth Karunaratne was ruled out with injury.
Alternatively, Kaushal should have gone to the Caribbean when Angelo Mathews was forced to return home due to personal reasons. The selectors owe the general public an explanation as to how they could pick someone with a First Class average of 30:48 to replace the class of Mathews.
Whether Kaushal would have made runs or not in the Caribbean, we will never know. But what we do know for certain is that he would not have left his mate in a St. Lucia nightclub high and dry.
In cricket circles, people have been discussing at depth whether the national cricket team brought the game into disrepute by not taking the field at the start of third day’s play in St. Lucia. Some argue that the Sri Lankans were right to ask for evidence before accepting the guilty verdict. Captain Dinesh Chandimal, suspended and fined heavily, awaits further sanctions. The team’s think tank comprising Manager Asanka Gurusinha and Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha are in trouble too. Perhaps had the Sri Lankans taken the field without being over smart in St. Lucia, the result of this tour could have been different! It would have been 2-0 Sri Lanka.
