Ceylon Today Editorial

SLC must address ‘away tests’ seriously

07 January 2017

Being in a hurry about any and everything would appear to be a defining Sri Lankan trait, not the least predominantly evident when our national cricketers take the field against tough oppositions on away tours.

Watching the commonplace return to the pavilion after a flurry of tumbling wickets – all caused by haste making them gift their wickets through wrong strokes and a couldn't-care-less attitude, I was intrigued as to where they were in such a ungodly haste to get , to justify their haste which always hands foreign teams cake-walk victories by huge margins.

I wondered whether it was the 'one-day limited overs mind set' at work subconsciously in the absence of intelligent guidance as in the days of What more, Arjuna, Aravinda et al whose guidance, mentoring and motivation lifted our national cricket to command global accolades, snatching the 1996 Cup from the Aussies, the more recent T20 championship and a raft of superb test victories to boot. The fact however cold be that the current batch have all not played the ODI game internationally and this could be contributing to the lackadaisical mindset approach that leads them to pathetic defeats as on the current SA tour in which they've wilted tamely under some intelligent cricket and blistering pace, not necessarily on fast tracks but on 'battable' wickets.

The Board's got to get to tangible grips with this lack of mentoring, guidance and motivation if this current batch of promising youngsters are to not disgrace Sri Lanka at more defeats against teams of quality on well-balanced wickets. If they can't do this they will fail abysmally on really fast tracks.

We hardly saw this sort of unholy haste in our former match-winning teams in which our star batsmen knew all about killing the early bowling, employing patience and putting runs on the board which our comparatively maverick lot of bowlers could bowl at to give Sri Lanka even a ghost of a chance at victory or an honourable draw. Sri Lanka performed creditably well in the first game against Australia in the 1996 World Cup when the Aussies fielded a terrific team, and we went on to grab the coveted WC title.

This was after going down to the West Indies in a pathetic display putting a measly 81 runs on the board in 37.2 overs, handing the Windies a cake walk in just 20 overs. Just four days later, having won the toss against the Australians whom they put into bat, and watched them get to 328 for 5 in their allotted 60 overs. Going into bat Sri Lanka lost just four wickets in their allotted 60 overs but were seen struggling against some scorching pace from Lillee and Thompson who were then terrorizing batsmen all over the globe. Wettimuny and star bat Mendis were injured badly, being struck by the Aussie typhoon Thommo.

This is how Wettimuny described his ordeal of pace and what Ashley Mallet wrote in an article and saying 'Wettimuny will never forget that day." Said Wettimuny "Never before or since did I know fear on a cricket field. When I got to hospital I discovered I had sustained a hairline fracture of the rib, my right foot was fractured, I had a dreadful bruise on my inner thigh, my hip bone was badly bruised and I was completely numb in my left leg. I thought I was paralyzed. The numbness stayed with me for 12 hours.

Later on I heard some Lankan players telling me of Imran Khan's intimidating. Sure Imran was a speed merchant, but pales into a facile medium pace compared in comparison with Thommo. Since Sri Lankans have feared pace bowling, wherever they play away from home one finds the hosts pep up their talk about how lethal their pacies are and this SA tour has not been different.

They rub it in about their bouncy pitches and mention the fact that their most lethal weapon Dale Steyn was sitting this tour out. Mind you, this is to a side whose predecessors brought home the ODI and T20 ICC World Cups and that too within a very short period of being on the world stage. We have seen the capabilities of Sri Lankans as cricketers. But, as one commentator put it, there is also the issue to do with frequent changes of the administrators of the game and thus creating an atmosphere of deep uncertainty in the minds of our players who naturally fear the axe in a sequel to a few failures.

Sri Lanka after sending an almost A side to Zimbabwe won that series, and the tri-nation tournament as well, against teams with comparable potential except that our team perhaps an edge where experience was concerned because of a few senior players in the side.

In the South African series the Sri Lankans still have that edge, and the South Africans have the home advantage and they are making full use of the conditions, with outstanding performances in batting, bowling and mostly fielding. Those match winning catches taking, those singles saved and penetrating bowling lines which put our batters on the back foot came together to give South Africa the advantage over Sri Lanka, who performed poorly in these very areas.