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| Sunday, 13 July 2003 |
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Dyson's entry like a silver lining to a dark cloud by SRIAN OBEYESEKERE The long awaited arrival of John Dyson, Sri Lanka's Australian born new cricket coach, who is expected to fly in late tonight comes like a silver lining to a dark cloud. Dav Whatmore's successor, whom Cricket Board officials described as a man wielding some accumen as a astute reader of the game, comes at a time this island nation's cricket is on a rather low key. Captains have changed, as much the coach. Since longtime coach Whatmore departed by the wishes of the Cricket Board which terminated his services, Sri Lanka has not had a good taste of the game, the results have not been wholly pleasing. A drawn Test series against New Zealand from two matches, and lost a home triangular series for the first time in just over 20 years. The redeeming feature was the infliction of a 2-1 series defeat on the West Indians away. But that is about all which remains to speak about for the Sri Lankans took a backseat in the wake of the 1-0 beating the Lankans took in turn from the West Indians in the 2-off Test series. In that backdrop, Dyson's coming when he is initially scheduled to take stock of his duties here, certainly marks great expectations. Summing up the former Aussie Test opener's role in guiding Sri Lanka's future destinies in the firmament was former captain and the Cricket Board's Chief Executive Officer, Anura Tennekoon, when he said, "He (Dyson) has played at the highest level for Australia and commands a wealth of experience having also coached several Australian state sides". Contacted by the `Sunday Observer', Tennekoon strongly felt that Sri Lanka had made the right catch. "Dyson is in his early forties and I believe he carries the clout to take our cricket a step further from here," he said. The asking cannot be better timed. Whatmore's services were not renewed not so much in a lack of faith in the man's ability, but more in the belief that his `love affair' with Lankan cricket had reached a stalemate where the cricket think tank felt new injection was required. It is somewhat of a cricketing coincidence that Dyson takes stock of things here at a juncture Whatmore has stepped into a vaccum of guiding minnows Bangladesh from a basin ocean to oceans and oceans of the wide world of the game which beckons Sri Lanka's sub-continent nation. If it is a tough ask for Whatmore to emulate his Lankan adventure in lifting a lowly Bangladesh like from the famines it experiences as he ironically faces his first big baptism against world beaters Australia whom Sri Lanka upset under his tutelage, for Dyson it will be a different sort of adventure. To fine tune a nation which has flattered and faltered. A World Cup won at Australia's expense, but no more the potential one-day side. At Test level badly in need of greater clout in being able to match the giants in the game. |
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