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| Sunday, 14 November 2004 |
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Play Tests against quality teams outside Asia to improve Sri Lanka's batsmen are known for their fighting qualities in International matches in the Asian region, but outside they seem to stutter and perform below par. This is the opinion of a Sri Lankan cricket fan Hiran Liyanage from New York, U. S. A. In their effort to become the best team in Asia, Sri Lanka fared well in the recent matches against Pakistan and though losing the last match, did well to square the recent Test series. It appears that the performances of the Sri Lanka team is on the upward trend since last year, but our prowess has been shown only in the sub-continent. The big question, however is: "Can our batsmen do the same outside the sub-continent on hard, bouncy, seam-friendly fast pitches on grounds like Gabba (Brisbane), WACA (Perth) in Australia, Edgbaston (Birmingham) in England, Kensington Oval (Bridgetown) in West Indies, Newlands (Cape Town) in South Africa and so on? Sri Lanka's batsmen failed against quality pace bowlers like McGrath, Gillespie, Lee, Kasprowicz, Harmison and Pollock and Company. Here's one example which shows how the Lankan batsmen failed in a test against South Africa in the 2000/01 series in South Africa. It was the second Test in Newlands, Cape Town from Dec. 31 to Jan. 4 in 2001. Sri Lanka were shot out for 95 in 38.4 overs in 178 minutes. Kumar Sangakkara made 32 and Aviska Gunawardena 24 and in the second innings, the Lankans scored 180 and eventually lost the Test by an innings and 229 runs. Pollock was the chief wrecket taker of the Lankan innings in the first innings with six wickets. There may be some people who may say that it was a one-off situation, but certainly it has been that way. More often when Sri Lanka tours Australia, England, West Indies or South Africa, this is the common occurence when playing against quality pace bowlers on fast pitches. In the last series against the Australians, the Lankans did somewhat well but to be fair, the matches were not played on typical Aussie-type wickets, which are hard, bouncy and favour good seam bowling. The wickets at Darwin and Cairns were newly laid and were behaving more like sub-continent tracks with the ball keeping low. Untill we go to countries mentioned and do well on those pitches on a "consistent basis", we won't be seen as a really strong team, and it is important that our top batsmen take their good form in Lanka & in the sub-continent to these grounds and do well. As I see it, there are few things that we ought to do if we want a long term solution to this batting problem. 1. Simply play more Test matches against quality teams outside Sri Lanka. Nothing could be better than this for our top batsmen. This is one of the reasons why Australia is a top test side. They play quite a lot of Test cricket per year. We should try to play at least 15 Tests per year against quality sides. Sri Lanka being a relatively good test side & having a star studded line-up, our board can demand more test matches from top sides. 2. Our top batsmen should play county cricket in England more regularly. This did a world of good for Aravinda, and he was a better batsman after his stint with Kent. Though county sides may not have the same quality bowling attack as test sides, still this may help our batters in terms of adaptability to fast, seam friendly pitches. If our players can't land county contracts then Sri Lanka Cricket Board should play a more pro-active role (while a suitable payment plan could be worked out between the player & SL Cricket for securing the contract). 3. Sri Lankan pitches:- This is something that has been preached on & on by Lankan cricket lovers for quite awhile, yet we still seem to be reluctant to leave our comfort zone. Our batsmen will never perform well overseas till we start making more sporting pitches, where there's fair amount of assistance for pace bowlers. If we play our 1st class cricket on these types of wickets, needless to say after awhile our batters would perform better overseas. 4. Finally it's about our local cricket structure and the question is, are our top Test batsmen consistently made to play against our top Test bowlers? I am referring to the likes of Marvan, Jayasuriya, Sanga, Mahela, Dilshan, Thilan & Co. playing against Vaas, Dilhara, Malinga, Maharoof, Zoysa, Nissanka, Murali, Herath, Chandana, Lokuaarachchi and so on. Also, is our selection policy of Test batsmen based on these performances? Usually at first class level our batsmen score heavily against sub-standard bowlers and try to justify their place in the Test side. Our first class structure is not competitive enough and we need a good structure, where our top batsmen are constantly made to play against our top bowlers and this ultimately deciding in their selection. One argument against this maybe that bowlers need a well earned rest. In that case look at the foreing tournaments especially in Australia. You constantly read and hear, how Warne made a comeback to his State side Victoria, and McGrath doing well for New South Wales and so on. Aren't these bowlers made to play for their domestic sides irrespective of the fact that Australia has a busy International schedule. Without adressing these real issues, expecting our batsmen to do well beyond sub-continent (Test matches in paticular) would be just wishful thinking and we won't be taken seriously outside the sub-continent. |
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