Ford contends Sri Lanka has ideal platform

by Ranjan Anandappa in Bangladesh

Sri Lanka coach Graham Ford insisted that the on-going T20 tournament, the Asia Cup, and the impending T20 World Cup should be the start of a process that he wants to put in place to develop the future of Sri Lanka cricket to be on top for a long period of time rather than seek a quick fix.

“Lots of important things are going to happen in the next few months”, he said.

When asked about the capabilities of the players, Ford said that it was too early for him to judge players.

“Some players have improved and some have got older. I watched a couple of games in India but I feel going forward with the management and the selectors and identifying a special talent can become the future of Sri Lankan cricket.

“And that is happening at the moment a little bit once we settle and identify who these special players are with the right mental attitude and who could really dominate the international cricket. We must have patience and give them a really good boost to achieve that target”, said Ford.

He said that at the moment the team is lacking the experience and probably a couple of real classy batsmen to give the team the runs and set up the onslaught at the end of the innings that Sangakkara and Mahela have done for so many years. “They are missing now and we have to find somebody to do that and we’ll have to find them pretty quickly. It is exciting to see Sri Lanka finding seam bowlers which is good for the future.

“Kusal Janith’s absence from the team is a huge blow. He is one of the most outstanding players that I have seen. He is so exciting and he is a Gilchrist. Everybody was banking on having him, but now he is in a different situation and it’s a massive loss for the side and hopefully he will be back soon”, said Ford.

Ford admitted that the Sri Lankans will go into the tournaments more as underdogs than in previous tournaments because the side has plenty of new players. “Cricket is a funny game. With good energy, commitment and right attitude anything can happen. We have one or two in Mathews and Malinga and Dilshan as well as the young group, so hopefully that can create a bit of a recipe for success. But at the same time for me as much as it’s something we like to do by winning the tournaments it is very much a start of the process we want to put in place the future of Sri Lankan cricket”, said Ford.