Sri Lanka’s debacle needs probing

The Sri Lankan cricketers took wing to South Africa oozing with confidence to contest the ICC Champions Trophy. And that they came a cropper going down tamely to England and New Zealand offering no resistance and fight needs probing by Sri Lanka Cricket.

The manner in which our cricketers performed in the games against England and New Zealand is inexplicable and a probe will reveal all. They started off with a bang knocking aside the strong favourites to win the trophy South Africa in their own backyard.

But the cricketers seemed to be listless and out of depth in the remaining games, losing two and having to go down on their knees and pray to the gods for England to beat New Zealand so that they would be in with a chance of making it to the semi-finals.

God helps those who helps themselves, it is said and in this instance the gods showed no mercy and were unforgiving and looked the other way probably unable to accept the poor approach and the poor display.

The Lankans who left with their heads held high with the strong support of the cricketing public who had high hopes of the Lankans bringing home the trophy,had to return with their heads down and no one to sing their hosannas. The cricketers must be made aware that winners are heroes and losers outcasts.

When the Lankans performed admirably against the favourites South Africa,they had cleared their stiffest hurdle in their group and on that form were tipped to either beat England or New Zealand and secure a slot in the semis.

True they were caught on a green top and could do nothing against the pace and swing of England’s James Anderson and Graham Onions who revelled in those conditions. But the top four batsmen Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena have loads of experience playing in these conditions and there were no excuses the way they surrendered.

Every Sri Lankan hoped that the cricketers would have benefitted from their defeat to England and hit back with a vengeance and stuff the Kiwis. Why oh why did captain Kumar Sangakkara win the toss and ask New Zealand in,on a wicket that looked ripe for a 300 plus total?

Obviously Sangakkara would have made up his mind before the game that he was going to field whether he won the toss or not. That is why from reports, he and others dropped the match winning bowler and holder of the records in Test and limited over cricket the great Muttiah Muralitheran.

How the skipper or who ever gave thought to dropping the great man needs explaining. Had skipper Daniel Vettori and his team seen the name of Muralitheran in the team list, they would have been apprehensive. When they found his name missing would have jumped for joy and inspired them and that’s how they remained till victory was achieved.

Had Muralitheran played, along with Ajantha Mendis they would have had the Kiwi batsmen guessing and mesmerized with their high class unreadable repertoire of spin from both ends and the Kiwis could have been clipped.

But when they decided to win the toss and ask New Zealand in and go in with paceman Thilana Thusara and drop the great spinner Muralitheran, it was ‘Illan kanava’ - asking and eating. The dropping of Muralitheran will go into the books as one of the greatest sins committed in the name of the great game.

Also Muralitheran would never even have dreamed that he would ever come to be thought of being dropped. For one who had done wonders for the game and country his dropping was unforgiving and unacceptable. It must be remembered that Muralitheran is also the vice-captain.

Now the Lankans have lost out on winning two trophies. They lost to India in the Compaq final in Sri Lanka and now have slipped out of having a go and bringing home the ICC Champions Trophy.

If they continue to lose, very soon they will be tagged ‘chokers’ and wear the same tag that the South Africans are now sporting. It will be a shame when that happens.

It is paramount then that Sri Lanka Cricket probe this debacle and take remedial steps so that repeats of this nature would not take place again. Sri Lanka cricket was once feared by all opponents. But it is not so now. Sad.

After Sri Lanka now we take to task the hosts of the ICC Champions Trophy South Africa and the International Cricket Council who are responsible for the tournament. We are prompted to do this because they were found wanting in the wickets they prepared for a high profile tournament like this.

When a tournament like this is conducted it is paramount that wickets be prepared that would be fair to all teams participating. But it has not been so. Some wickets have been atrocious, while some have not been up to the mark.

Take for instance the wicket at the Wanderers where the England-New Zealand game was played. It was a disgrace and could be best described as a minefield. Being a crucial game, the wicket should have played even. But it was not so.

England batsmen,instead of revelling on it had to defend and protect life and limb. The ball was snaking at times and climbing off a good length and threatening to take one’s head off at times.

It was shocking to hear the TV Commentators describing the wicket at the Wanderers. It was more shocking when it was revealed that the curator had only been allowed two wickets to work on.

The reason they adduced for the wicket misbehaving was that the other strips could not be used because the TV cameras could not be focussed on those wickets. Now that is to say the least a sad state of affairs.

The ICC must explain whether they are doing things for the game and the player or are they promoting the TV sponsors. The ICC must get their priorities right otherwise at the end they will come out in poor light. It will be sad if that happens.