Ceylon Today Editorial

Transitions cannot be shaped to please

21 January 2017

It is beginning to make those familiar rumblings once again with this present situation affecting the Sri Lankan cricket team that has come about from the South African Test debacle. It is not the first time such is taking place. Whenever the team performs poorly the rumbling begins. All teams around the world are facing similar runs with their performances in the game. Sri Lanka looked an unprepared team losing the Test series to home team South Africa 3-0, mostly due to their bad fielding.

It being home conditions for South Africa, they were not far from Sri Lanka's performance with their batting, three or four wickets falling for low totals was a common sight. If not for dropped catches Sri Lanka was moving with ease. Those dropped catches gave room for the home team to get runs on board enough to make it a demanding task for the new top order of the Sri Lankan batting line up.

The approach of talking about a change in the captaincy just prior to the start of the shorter game series is not the way to go and we will see it as the series progresses, if the move was wise or not. This type of reasoning goes to show all is not well within the team. Mathews has explained it all and his approach has more sanity in it. All possibilities have to be looked into how the winning combination can be had within these selections to gain out of the T20s and ODIs. Depending on this outcome in the shorter versions and with clearer reasons only should all changes come into effect - not simply as threats.

The fact that Sri Lanka have found new pace bowling talent is no answer for their woes to go away. It is a good thing that Thilanga Sumathipala has decided at this moment to go around and gain knowledge of the games' situation in other areas. To look for the needs of infrastructure in the outstations in Sri Lanka is a good way to promote the game there.

Recently our cricket board chief has been telling the world they are going to build the latest venue in Jaffna. The venue at Sooriyawewa has not been used for some time now citing various reasons after spending colossal amounts to build it. They have suddenly discovered it to be an out of the way venue for cricket. As with most Test playing nations cricket has been associated with the same venues from almost the beginning. Not so in Sri Lanka where the game was mostly in hands of Colombo clubs that had the infrastructure needed some time ago, before we got into playing Test cricket.

It is a good thing to go ahead with improving the game in the North. Cricket has been played there for a long time, similarly to the rest of the country where it has been played in schools. The talent should be abundant and more players will emerge from these parts soon to fill some important areas. These things should have been identified a long time ago, and then Sri Lanka too would have had the privilege of getting a more organized way of team building.

The only cricketing nation without selection problems and rebuilding the team seems to be India. Their dynamic captain Virat Kohli has a backbone of steel and uses it whenever they need something strong. South Africa is on team rebuilding trying to gain as much as possible with their affirmative programme to get the best side possible with playing more black cricketers in their side. They have been quite successful up to the series with Sri Lanka on home turf. Others doing well on home turf have been the Australians and New Zealanders.

Along with England they too need more players with ability around whom they can get the rebuilding process get going more speedily. The rest of the cricket world playing Test cricket like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the West Indies are yet depleted. They still need to get more players and their cricket boards in better shape. With cricket boards in troubled waters the chances for it to give the confidence required to their players is minimized. Players need the best possible frame of mind to retain that confidence and troubled cricket boards cannot do that.

India's rise to their present status can be attributed to the standing of their board with the ICC. Cricket-wise they have been contributing to the ICC programme to take cricket where the ICC expects the game to be commercial. Being financially the strongest cricket board they have got the upper hand and uses it to their advantage thereby giving that back to their players who perform accordingly. All cricket playing nations have similar backgrounds with their game and some may be better advantaged having more experience in the Test arena.

Sri Lanka may never be able to become another India however much they try. It is the BCCI's financial position that helped to get India to where it is today with administering the international game. The game has been played in both countries for similar periods; India always had the advantage of having strong individuals who were interested in taking the game to a high level and as players, as a result, even representing England. So, India definitely had that advantage.