Ceylon Today Editorial

Building reputations harder than improving players

11 February 2017

In an interview in Dubai recently Sri Lankan cricket legend Mahela Jayawardena had this to say about why the Sri Lankan young players coming out do not seem to fit the pattern of the past. "Our domestic cricket is something that is not up to the mark. It is not up with all the other countries. We are producing talented cricketers but they are not at the level where they could step in and play international cricket," Jayawardena said.

Jayawardena was even then someone who knew the value of batting scoring 66 off 103 balls at a strike of 63 showing his ability to wait and score. With his first outing getting his name alongside a world record breaking total (952) showed his class. His remark about what is eating Sri Lanka's game was their domestic structure may have been his experience not having a good overseas record.

The statement made though is a very accurate one, whether it is overseas conditions or home batting is done only one way. The difference is adjusting to conditions. Mahela's overseas average of 35 includes many overseas hundreds; this will prove that it is conditions faced in real situations that will improve the player. Sri Lankan domestic competition was introduced at a time when there was no scope of the country being on stages of Test cricket. The domestic tournament then was meant only as a feature to keep cricket going, from schools to clubs.

In those conditions it may not have mattered very much about conditions and situations; the survival of the fittest would be the mark. With getting on to the international game things needed to be changed. Even after the first appearance in a Test match in 1983 it was taken for granted how the domestic tournament would improve matters of conditioning players for selections. As in the past it went just the same way of players being picked for performances based locally. Yet there was evidence that they were average performers in overseas conditions.

Due to this situation prevailing over cricket in Sri Lanka they are stuck in the quagmire of transition for quite a while. Unless, they manage to find a way out of this situation soon and were to carry on and on, sooner than later they are going to find themselves at the lower end of the rung. It is not that they do not have the players capable of putting things right. But, that experience playing the game the hard way it is played by the countries heading the rakings is what matters most.

If you take the fourth ODI against the South Africans that Sri Lanka lost by 40 runs it shows that those ones being turned into twos, had it happened they could have been on top. It was that same thing right along; the dropped catches and waiting at the wicket without throwing it away were things that went against the Sri Lankans.

The players except for the two or three seniors were all youngsters less in experience. It is this matter in that transition calculation that went on to be the negative factor. What was witnessed as capabilities compared to most youngsters going around, the performances from those Sri Lankans were top class. Lakshan Sandakan, Lahiru Kumara were comparable to most top class bowlers in the world and batters like Kusal Mendis, Dickwella would be welcomed by most captains. They could be classed masterful stroke makers and stars on the field, had they been able to improve their game to a more consistent level.

In actuality from what the captain of the South African ODI team said about the Sri Lankans showed that they were not going to take chances against them. That shows the respect they have, it could be more constant and meaningful had they stood on their toes and tried harder. This is what is meant in the statement made by Sri Lankan cricketing great Mahela that much could be achieved changing that domestic structure.

Another cricketing legend and present chief of selectors Sanath Jayasuriya says that most of our top cricketers came from this domestic structure and it is not the structure's fault. There has to be some sort of problem; structural change is needed as the production of the good cricketer does not take place as it used to. From the time Sri Lanka were accepted to ICC Test level, there was the production line working well, producing one after another first class cricketer, fit to go and make it into the national squad straight from school but it has slowed down too much.

We are not producing enough of outstation or Colombo based players with confidence like Sanath or Dilshan or Upul Tharanga anymore. The people coming through the line need more strength to go into the international level and begin to perform, that is what this delay in the transition is all about. And this is how the transition was seen by sports writer Peter Miller recently: The sun rises. The sun sets. The earth revolves around the sun. The moon revolves around the earth. Sri Lanka is in transition. They all want Sri Lanka to perform and they know the capabilities of Sri Lankan players. do not lose that respect it is harder to rebuild than cricketers.