Kumar Sangakkara - ICC Best Batsman of the Year:

Emerging players a threat to regulars

By Ranjan ANANDAPPA

Cricket: Positive signs by young Test aspirants strongly claiming for places in the national team who could even challenge some of the established players and ousting them, shows the SLC decentralized coaching system has worked effectively during the past years.

Sri Lanka has been presently ranked at number three ahead in both one-day and Tests formats and Kumar Sangakkara has been named as the Best Batsman of the year by the ICC. This exemplifies the steady progress made by the team.

A typical example is some of the national players like Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva, Farveez Maharoof are trying to claw their way back into contention. But with emerging players of the calibre of Dinesh Chandimal, Jeevan Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dimuth Karunaratne to name a few who are making rapid progress in making the grade, there is bound to be a threat to the regular players. They are applying tremendous pressure to keep the senior players on their toes.

Former Thomian and youth cricketer Jerome Jayaratne who is the Head of Coaching SLC, said that the whole edifice of Sri Lanka Cricket, the coaching, strength conditioning and physiotherapy area is housed together. However the whole assessment comes with the performance of the national team.

Jayaratne represented the Sri Lanka Under 19 team under Aravinda de Silva and toured Australia in 1984. In 1986 was a member of the Sri Lanka Under 23 team under Arjuna Ranatunga when they met their Pakistan counterparts led by Salim Malik. He also obtained the level three coaching certificate both from England and Australia.

“Doesn’t matter whatever is done, but if the national team is not doing well, the whole edifice will collapse. So at the moment the ICC has rated us number three in both forms of the game which shows consistency. And right now we have the number one batsman in the world rated by the ICC Kumar Sangakkara. So it shows some sort of progress.” said Jayaratne.

Speaking further, Jayaratne said: “In our coaching area generally what happens is most of the people are highlighted if they are only at the national level or management, but there is so much of spade work to be done from the grass roots level up to the top before a player embarks into the International arena. Undoubtedly our schools are the best nurseries and academies and from there we build for the future.”

“Unlike in the past, the bench strength of coaches are good. if you take a under 19 or a ‘A’ team, we have a fielding coach, a fast bowling coach etc. It is like a mini-management although not as powerful as the national team.

So the strength of the coaching staff is good. In the past at the under 19 level we use to train for about 6 to 9 months prior to a World Cup. But since 2001, where we entered the final, we have not done well in the under 19 level. Now we go down to the under 15 and 17 levels too. We have national pools for these age groups. The under 15 and 17 comes under Roger Wijesuriya, then Naveed Nawaz takes over from under 19. From this level we have a professional management and from the development squad Sumithra Warnakulasuriya takes over. He has done a fantastic job over the last two years. The ‘A’ team is currently handled by Romesh Kaluvitharana” opined Jayaratne.

In the coaching sphere there is also Champaka Ramanayake and Anusha Samaranayake, Prabath Nissanka are looking after the fast bowlers and Piyal Wijetunga and Oshadie Weerasinghe in charge of the spinners. What the Cricket Board did recently was like other international teams they too introduced a Super Management system in their national fore front. In the past we had only the coach and the assistant.

But now, Ruwan Kalpage has been brought in for specialised fielding for the national team only and Champaka Ramanayake has been put in charge again as the national fast bowling coach specifically for the national team. So, along with Trevor Bayliss and Steuart Law we have two more guys who make a four-member coaching management team, other than the manager and whoever it is. With these things introduced, we see that the teams were better managed, handled and the input was better.” Jayaratne said.

Going down the ladder, Jayaratne said that there has been a noticeable progress seen in the under 15 cricketers. There has been a fine streamlining of the system from under 15,17,19, development, academy and ‘A’ teams and the national team. About the coaching staff a lot of credit should go to people like Roger Wijesuriya who handles a vast number of juniors. Naveed Nawaz under 19, along with Upul Chandana and then Warnakulasuriya at the academy level and ‘Kalu’ takes over and followed by Bayliss and Law.

Jayaratne further said that everyone knows the recognised players, but a sudden resurgence in the past couple of years have seen some players in the age group of 19 to 21 like Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Pradeep, Chaminda Eranga - an up and coming fast bowler, Kusal Janith, Dilshan Munaweera and Dimuth Karunaratne progressing, surpassing senior players like Jehan Mubarak, Malintha Warnapura, Michael Vandort to name some. The reason behind this is Sri Lanka Cricket gave all these players national full time contracts.

The lowest level was Rs.40,000 per month to make them full time professionals. For the last one year 78 boys were employed as full time professional cricketers, the lowest category of the Academy was paid Rs.40,000 per month, the Development Squad was paid Rs.60,000, Rs.100,000 for the T20 and the national contracts of ‘A’ team and National Team which are paid in US dollars.

This year, SLC is hoping to contract 100 players for the year 2010/11. This will include about six or seven players who performed well at the last Under 19 World Cup held in New Zealand this year. These players have been spotted by the Junior Selection Committee and the Coaches.

In the provincial structure too, the cricket Board has about 35 to 40 coaches covering the country. These coaches work very closely with the club coaches in selecting players. Up to the Under 19 level the selection is done by the junior selection Panel, beyond that the selection process is done by the National Selectors who sit with the respective coaches.