Letter

Lasith Malinga ‘was never a captain’

It is now so hilarious that some decision makers are talking of changing the T20 captain Lasith Malinga after the disastrous showing by Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup in Bangladesh where they lost to the host.

Malinga was never a leader or a captain and whoever decided to make him one should hang his head in shame. Thanks to an under-performing captain Dinesh Chandimal at the last T20 World Cup, Malinga was made captain and by some stroke of luck Sri Lanka won the final and as it is with most cases in Sri Lanka emotions ran high and Malinga became the darling of the selectors who have never made any bold decision ever since the country was elevated to Test status in 1981.

The only thing that Malinga had to give the team was that he bowls some unplayable balls in what the experts call ‘death overs’ or takes three wickets in five balls once in a while.

Apart from that he had nothing to offer the team by way of strategy, advice or tactics.

What happened in the Asia Cup is that the selectors expected some miracle from the stand-in skipper Angelo Mathews after Malinga was forced out due to injury.

In all fairness Mathews the humble person that he is was lost or thrown into the deep end. At least Malinga had Mahela and Sangakkara to cover him up at the last World T20 and poor Mathews had none and nobody will want to be in his shoes the way things are going.

Kamal Fernando
Moratuwa