Sri Lanka should stand on own ground and make decisions

By Ranjan ANANDAPPA

CRICKET: Former Sri Lanka vice-captain and usually referred to as the prince of batting in the number three slot - Roy Dias, stressed that it should be a give an take policy that should be adopted in the current impasse created between Sri Lanka's tour of England or the IPL Twenty20 cricket series.

A group of senior Sri Lanka cricketers have been signed on by IPL before the England tour between April-May 2009 were thought of and the senior cricketers are at cross-roads as to what they should do.

Roy Dias who stood out like a beacon in the days when he faced the thunder bolts of Holding, Roberts and Co in the early days, said that two or three Test tour of England unlike the solitary Test in the good old days, should be grabbed at and was also hesitant whether the IPL Twenty20 cricket will help Sri Lanka cricket.

He said that Twenty20 cricket will help the players commercially. Dias is not a firm believer in Twenty20 cricket although it is a crowd-puller like rugby. Rugby is played over ninety minutes and likewise Twenty20 is played around three hours and was not certain whether it would help youngsters to play Test cricket, even one-day cricket. He felt that the IPL and ICL had been highlighted too much. Dias was also not convinced by Twenty20 cricket.

"I don't think that we should concentrate on Twenty20. I think Mahela said that there should be one Twenty20 tournament. That is great of him to say that", Dias said.

Further touching on the raging impasse Dias said, "I won't blame anyone for playing for IPL or ICL or whatever it is. I feel as a former Sri Lanka player that we should stand on our own ground. We should not listen to or let others dominate us".

Discuss and solve issue

"We should not make a big issue of this, the IPL players and Sri Lanka Cricket should discuss and get the opinions of the cricketers because no one is perfect. Everyday even as a coach, I am learning. Likewise, the cricketers are learning, the Cricket Board is learning. So, what I feel is whatever we do it is for cricket", Dias said.

He said that as a professional, he is talking and not as a cricketer. "I am talking as a coach and if you take most of the coaches in Sri Lanka, have taken jobs abroad, for instance myself, Rumesh Ratnayake is with the ACC, Champaka Ramanayake who took over from Rumesh has gone to Bangladesh, Ruwan Kalpage who was the fielding coach, also has gone to Bangladesh. So, everything comes down to the offer one gets. A cricketer's life span period is about ten years. When we played we had jobs as well. Also these guys have jobs, but we didn't have so much cricket", said the 56-year-old Dias who had represented the country in 20 Test matches and 53 ODIs.

"Now every other day, the cricketers are either touring or playing cricket. For us, we had a maximum one or two tours for an year, so we could concentrate on our jobs as well. I did shipping for 10 years at Freudenburg & Company under Mr. Robert Senanayake and then joined Maharajah Organisation and worked at A. F. Jones as a Tea-Taster for about another eight to ten years. The job was offered to me by Mr. Rajah Mahendran. Mahendran was interested in cricket and he took on many cricketers... Duleep Mendis, Rumesh Ratnayake, Charith Senanayake, Kapila Wijegoonewardena and we played cricket and did learn our trade too. Mr. Mahendran said cricket is one thing, but you all must have a feed back as well and learn what you are going to do, so that made most of us more professional in our jobs. For that, I must thank Mr. Rajah Mahendra. He was in charge of Sri Lanka Cricket as well", Dias said.

Roy Dias seems to be happy coaching Nepal, because he is his own master there. "I am very, very happy in Nepal. I run the cricket show there and whatever I do, I do it my way, and I have got used to having a free hand. I practice seven days a week to my own schedules. For me, I don't think that I can go to a Cricket Board and work in an office where there is no cricket. I love to go to the grounds and work with the cricketers whoever it may be", said Dias.

Dias who had been away for seven years, showed his willingness to coach in Sri Lanka.

"I would like to come to Sri Lanka there is no doubt about it. But there is always a question mark, because I am a person who doesn't want to take sides and get involved in cricket politics, because I am very friendly with all the past presidents of SLC and very close to the other board members too. I do not want to get involved for anyone to say that I am so and so's man. Infact, Arjuna Ranatunga is a close family friend of mine. Everyone thought because he was appointed chairman, that he will get me. But he didn't do it. He asked me, then I requested him to put everything in place first, and then I would come".

Dias said that he was the Sri Lankan coach for two years in 1998/99 and assignment was given to me by Mr. Thilanga Sumathipala.

Excerpts of the interview.

Q: Are you the first professional cricket coach to take up coaching in Nepal?

A: They had two coaches before me and I took over from 2001, before that they were not in that grade. When I went there for the first time, I thought whether I had made a mistake by going to Nepal. But later Nepal won the Under 19 ACC tournament beating Malaysia. I just went there for one month and then there was a request by Mr. Dalmiya who was the chairman of the ICC and Nepal wanted to me to continue till the ICC Under 19 World Cup to be held in New Zealand in 2002.

Q: Did you have a short stint playing cricket in Holland?

A: I got an offer to play cricket in Holland. Then it came to a stage that I had to concentrate on my coaching line. For a cricketer, may be the span is ten years, so, whatever comes our way we might as well take it.

Q: What are your impressions on the lifting of the ban of the cricketers. And also on the IPL and the ICL?

A: I think it has been highlighted far too much. The cricketers and the Cricket Board should discuss without trying to highlight. When I read that the ICL ban had been lifted, I thought it was great.

Marvan disappointed

Take for instance Marvan Atapattu, he was the Sri Lankan captain and got injured and he somehow made it to the World Cup as a player, but did not play in a single game. I feel it might happen to anyone, may be even to Mahela, Kumar or anyone. So, it's frustrating, Marvan may have been so disappointed.

He was the second person to suffer that way. The first guy myself, because my last ever Innings for the country as a Test player or an ODI player resulted in getting 81 runs against England in the 1987 World Cup in Pune, India. It was not against Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, but I never played for Sri Lanka thereafter. In 1989, they took me to Sharjah, where we had to play three matches against Pakistan, but I did not play in a single game. Same thing that happened to Marvan happened to me. It happened to me in 1987 and Marvan had to undergo the agony in 2004. I feel that a player of my calibre does not need to prove myself in a practice match to get into the eleven. Likewise, Marvan didn't have to get a hundred in a side game to ensure his place in the team. These are the few areas where naturally the cricketers get disappointed.

Marvan would have thought okay. He is not sure of his place. So, I won't blame anyone for playing in the IPL, ICL. I feel as a former Sri Lankan player we should stand our own ground.

We shouldn't listen to others and Let others dominate Sri Lanka Cricket. We must take a stand because Sri Lanka is one of the leading Test and one-day playing nations in the world. Every country would like to get Sri Lanka for a tour because we are the crowd pullers. We have so many great players, like Arjuna and Aravinda who won the World Cup for us with their brilliant batting. Then Sanath and 'Kalu', Gurusinha, Vaas, Muralitharan, you just can't forget any of those players. All 14 won the World Cup under the captaincy of Ranatunga, and that's where our cricket blossomed. From there we went upwards, although I feel the rankings are highly unnessary and I feel we are in the top three in world cricket.

So every country would like to take us on. We don't have to listen to one country and allow them to dictate terms, because Sri Lanka is Sri Lanka cricket, because these cricketers helped the country to come up to that level. So, we have to support our cricketers. And in the meantime there has to be an understanding between the Cricket Board and the players. It looks very ugly, it's not a demanding thing, it's sport, because after sometime, once you retire, you meet the cricketers and the officials of the Cricket Board at functions and it should be a friendly atmosphere. So, I think the lifting of the ban is good because these guys are young. They can still play in Sri Lanka and we need these experienced players to guide the youngsters even at club level.

Q: Have you been following the progress of Sri Lanka cricket in recent times?

A: I think we have some great players. Specially the batting side with Mahela and Kumar together. I always feel that it goes in pairs, specially the batting. Earlier it was Duleep and Myself, then it was Aravinda and Arjuna, like Marvan and Sanath, so great teams go in pairs. We have two very intelligent and brilliant cricketers who could guide the rest.

We have youngsters also coming up. I feel we should have a top batsman as a coach. I am not saying this because I am a coach, or because I want a job in Sri Lanka, No. We have got foreign coaches who are mainly bowling or batting allrounders, but we have not got a pure batting coach, like a Greg Chappell. One game we do very well, and the next game the batting flops. So there is something wrong somewhere. That is the area we should look at. Bowlingwise we never had a problem, we had great bowlers. Even now we have Vaas, Dilhara, Kulasekera and Lasith Malinga and now with Murali and this young 'prodigy' Ajantha Mendis, who will be a genius, no doubt about it. Our biggest problem is going to be the batting. So, what are we going to do about our batting? In South Africa the 'A' team got 750 runs in the first Test, but lost the second by an innings. So, there is something wrong somewhere. May be, a motivator or a psychologist could be got. I do not think the senior team needs a great coach no one can coach Muralitharan or Ajantha Mendis that's natural talent. Mahela, Kumar and Sanath are great batsmen. So, we don't need great coaches, but we need someone to guide and find whoever is making a mistake. It can be a small mistake. There are no major mistakes in a Test player. The mistakes are minor ones which even the computer cannot see. So, the youngsters should be guided. Because if you get 750 runs in an innings and lose the next game by an innings that needs reviewing.

Today we are talking about Twenty20 cricket. That's why I feel as Mahela said just one tournament for a year. We should concentrate on Test cricket, four-day concept, because that showcases the batting quality. In Twenty20 cricket, the bowler can bowl only four overs, and I feel sad. A person like Muralitharan I don't think, can get ten wickets in four overs.!