Baby killers aim to play like pros

by Ranjan Anandappa

Sri Lanka may have been over the moon after massacring a team of West Indies babes in the concluded Test and ODI series but coach Jerome Jayaratne will stand firm to vouch for the fact that playing against the big time professionals is what matters.

Sri Lanka won the Test series 2-0 and the ODI series 3-0 and next month take wing to New Zealand where it won’t be a walk in the park on seaming pitches.

Jayaratne could only describe the wins as nothing more than a stepping stone in a long journey ahead.

“The West Indies did not play to their optimum.

“Either we played good cricket and they were not performing to their optimum. I think we are still to be tested against good teams.

“Our challenge is in meeting top rated opposition and playing against the best to know where we stand and that is our goal”, said Jayaratne, a man always on the lookout for results and executing his obligations with precise work.

Jayaratne, who headed Sri Lanka Cricket’s coaching department for many years, may be having just the right credentials for a long term stint given the fact that he succeeded Marvan Atapattu who ended a two-year contract.

But Jayaratne is someone who can only deliver and not make rulings for an establishment that has been proved wrong than right most of the time.

Asked why Sri Lanka prefers to depend on foreign coaches Jayaratne said: “That’s a policy that has been there before I took over”.

Many players in the Sri Lanka team including skipper Angelo Mathews have made it very clear that Jayaratne has fitted and blended well at a time a void was created in the aftermath of home defeats against Pakistan and India this year.

“The only thing I don’t do is go out into the middle and play with them”, said Jayaratne.

“The players are very comfortable and they are free to discuss any issue with me even if it is personal. Cricket is like a glass of water, the amount you put in you’ll take back. I treat them like professionals. So basically they feel very comfortable because I make them feel at home”.

The Sri Lankan team is left with just a few weeks of preparation before embarking on the tour of New Zealand and Jayaratne knows what his players will be up against.

“We cannot make excuses. Whether we play in New Zealand or anywhere else we should compete and that is the only think that can make us win. All this talk of transition without Mahela and Sangakkara will not serve any purpose. We must perform at the highest, come what may”, said Jayaratne. He singled out a few players who could make the grade from among the new faces with one of them being leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay.