Casiechetty and Abeynaike were classy sportsmen

How fortunes change? Only recently derided as a lost cause, the Sri Lankans today are being hailed with envy as a team that has fire in its belly, resilient and classy in spirit. Many a commentator has lauded the Sri Lankans as a team that can fire up the crowds, light up the stadium and dispense sparkling cricket.

Yes, fortunes have indeed changed. The Sri Lankans failed to win the crown which was just one of those things, but even so they have acquitted themselves with respect and distinction that is good for the game of cricket.

And so the Sri Lankan cricketers led cleverly and admirably by Mahela Jayawardene enjoyed one of their best tours to Australia after being admitted to the elite league of ICC membership.

The trials and tribulations including the changes in the governing body and selectors that the team faced in recent months haunted the team, but that trauma seems to be over.

With a new band of selectors led by Ashantha de Mel and comprising Amal Silva, Don Anurasiri and Hemantha Wickremaratne had a difficult task to perform. They had to pick a squad that would hopefully reverse the trend after disastrous series against Australia, England, Pakistan and South Africa.

Commendable wins

The last two one-day internationals against South Africa ended in commendable wins for Sri Lanka. It was all the more creditable, considering that the victories were achieved chasing over 300 in both games.

After this tour also saw the change in captaincy with

Tillakaratne Dilshan stepping down and a former skipper Mahela Jayawardene being asked and readily accepting to serve and lead game and country in its hour of need.

The team under Jayawardene’s dynamic leadership started the Commonwealth Bank Tri series which also features India and Australia in disappointing fashion losing the first two games in Perth to India and Australia.

Those two games ended in close finishes. The Lankans had India and Australia on the ropes, but that we failed to deliver the knockout punches was just one of those things. To use boxing parlance we lost on points.

Record books

But defeat is a defeat— in points or whatever — and that is how it will remain in the record books.

But like true sportsmen they were not overly dispirited by those defeats. On the contrary it brought the best in them in adversity.

They rose like the Phoenix from the Ashes and what they have done since are wonders.

Firstly the credit goes to that Captain and General who leads from the front and by example, the charismatic Mahela Jayawardene. He volunteered to lead a team that seemed in pieces.

Jayawardene would not have been faulted had he turned down the request to lead a second time. When he was at the peak of his captaincy, a sudden drop in batting form, saw his critics baying for his blood.

Likeable Jayawardene

Not wanting to cling on to the captaincy, the likeable

Jayawardene with no support coming from those who ruled the game at that time, said enough is enough and threw in the towel.

But the gentleman and team man that he was and still is, Jayawardene continued to play the game like a true sportsman. He did not talk about being let down, but allowed his bat to do the talking.

Then when the game could not do without him, he came back and now on this tour has once again showed his exemplary leadership as has been proved by leading the team, into the best of three finals against Australia in the Commonwealth Bank Tri Series.

Critics here are raving over his leadership. Of the three

captains in this series, he has proved better than Australia’s Michael Clarke and India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Still at the helm

They urge him to continue to lead and would like to see him still at the helm when Sri Lanka makes a tour of Australia later this year in December for a three-Test series. When asked Jayawardene said he will take it series by series.

After this tri series will be the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, then England visits Sri Lanka, followed by the 2012 Twenty20 in Sri Lanka and then the tour of Australia.

For a team to succeed in the limited overs game, it is

essential that the openers lay the foundation with a good opening stand for the rest of the batsmen to consolidate and aim for a challenging total.

When Upul Tharanga kept failing, Jayawardene took it upon himself to open the innings. What he has done to date in rallying his team-mates including Tillakaratne Dilshan is admirable.

Great captain

That is the hallmark of a great captain and that is what is meant leading from the front and by example. Sri Lanka’s cricket was in the dumps with its ardent supporters deserting it and condemning it in the strongest possible terms.

But now Jayawardene has brought the Sri Lankan game on a new platform.

It is back again — alive and kicking. The cricketers are performing with exceptional cohesion. This is an indication that the Sri Lankan game is back on the rails, feared and respected like it was in the past.

The popularity of the team here is shown and proved by the tremendous support they have got from the Lankans domiciled here. Some of their supporters have travelled from state to state cheering and encouraging them. Watching the supporters performing sporting their Sri Lankan tee shirts with the papare, papare bands, waving the Lion Flags, dancing and singing the old time favourites makes one feel like being in a big school match in Sri Lanka.Most times at every venue that Lankan supporters have outnumbered their Indian and Australian counterparts. When the Lankans played a crucial game against Australia in Melbourne, which game Sri Lanka had to win to qualify to play in the finals, it was the deafening cheering by the Lankans that inspired the team to victory. Skipper Mahela did not fail to thank the Lankans for their support, which has never before been seen.

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