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| Sunday, 12 May 2002 |
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School
cricket must be revamped to get best results for national team
by Malsiri Kurukulasuriya As Sri Lankan fans the world over await the start of our first full tour of England, it is pertinent to look back on events that has shaped our cricket. Just as importantly we should take stock and determine where we go from here. Our beginnings were not auspicious at all. There were two gentlemen from different worlds who contributed towards this. No. 1 culprit was Tony Opatha who misrepresented matters to get a team to S. Africa. He offered a tempting financial package, and he allayed fears of the national players by pointing to the three-year suspension metered out to the rebel English team that visited S. Africa the previous year. He made everyone comfortable by dealing in half truths, Even so, I cannot but put a black mark against Bandula Warnapura. He was the national skipper and he should have given it more thought than he did. Not only was he risking his career, but those of several others. He should have known that the English experience was not a fair comparison. The forces at play in Sri Lanka who had just been offered Test status, were very different. However, he went along. He was not to know that the Board President, the late Gamini Dissanayake was livid. He thought that all his work was going to be undone by a bunch of unpatriotic money hungry cricketers. However, the lifetime ban was considered a little excessive by many. With time and new personalities and Mahes Gunatilleke are now helping the Board in various capacities. Rumours were rampant that Roy Dias, Aravinda, Arjuna and Duleep Mendis were also invited. Thankfully, they declined. The loss of those four would have been a body blow from which we may never have recovered. In the end, we lost our captain a very reliable opening batsman, Mahes Gunatilleke an excellent wicket-keeper, Ajit de Silva the tall left-hand spinner who many expected would surpass Bedi's records, and then there was Anura Ranasinghe - an excellent all rounder. He never came to terms with his punishment. He took refuge in alcohol which eventually consumed him. He died recently, still a young and bitter man deprived of playing cricket which he so loved. Then came Mr. Prabhakaran whose indiscriminate bombings and assassinations led to almost all test playing nations refusing to play here. We became strictly a touring side. It is impossible to quantify how much ground we lost by literally playing only half the games which we would have otherwise have played. Despite all this, we survived and even prospered in the face of adversity. It is a testimony to the grit and determination of a bunch of young guys led by Arjuna, Aravinda, Vaas, Roshan, Sanath and our champion Murali, let us not forget our expatriates like Asanka Gurusinghe and Ravi Ratnayake and a host of lesser stars that made their contributions. The arrival of Dav Whatmore was a turning point in our cricketing history. He is an innovator with a knack for getting the best from his players. He made the players believe in themselves. His innovative skills were best demonstrated in using Sanath and Kalu (both were not regular openers) to hit over the top in the limited over game, making full use of the drawn in-field in the first 15 overs. It caught the opposition by surprise and this tactic played a major role in our World Cup win. Who would have thought that given the initial problems, we would win that prized trophy in just 16 short years. We were still considered a good one-day side, but lacked the bowling to win Test matches. Again the revamped team under Sanath rose to the challenge and have won 9 consecutive Tests in the past 12 months. They put this record on the line when the series begins in England in a few days. Without Murali it is going to be tough, but our new found strength in our 'quickies' makes the attack that much better, and it keeps our chances of success possible though not probable. But what of the future? Looking down 5 years from now, I have a distinctly uncomfortable feeling. The fact that there is no one youngster to challenge Aravinda and Hashan is worrying. Sanath will be 37 and his availability would remain questionable. One thing that should be given serious consideration is scheduling more games for the 'A' team. The selectors should pick 3 or 4 of our best prospects and tell them they will play the next 6 to 8 games without being dropped. This would be like the opportunities given to Atapattu who came good after a horrendous start. But we have to see that the problem lies in our school cricket. We are just not producing the quality of players we did in the past. The performance of our 19 team in the recent World Cup leaves no room for optimism. The schools should lean on the BCCSL to render more help in the field of coaching and other areas requiring attention. |
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