Cricket desperately needs another Sanga

by Rex Clementine

The Cricket administration headed by Shammi Silva is getting roasted these days for the mess they have created and the humiliations the national cricket team has suffered. Together with them the national selection committee and Consultant Coach Mahela Jayawardene, who had a free hand to put cricket right, deserve blame for his failed policies and picking wrong personal. Players should not be spared blame either. They are equally responsible for the current mess.

It took one Virat Kohli to change the culture of Indian cricket. Fitness was alien to most Indian cricketers and when Kohli the fitness freak came into the scene not only did he dominate the sport but others started following his rigid routines. As captain, Kohli kicked out anyone who didn’t meet the fitness standards. Today Indian cricket is in a different level.

We had our own Kumar Sangakkara, whose insane training methods not only made him the highest run getter for Sri Lanka in both Test and ODIs but the world’s number one ranked batsman for a record number of weeks. Sanga left no stone unturned in his bid to go onto become the best in the world. As a result, from an ordinary wicketkeeper batsman he went onto become one of sport’s greats.

Why we have suffered the current mess is that nobody has taken a leaf out of Sanga’s book. Everyone is happy to live the comfortable life of an international cricketer. No one is willing to go out of their comfort zones.

Every time a young player graces the scene and shows promise, you are excited about the future ahead. But soon the team’s culture catches up with him and he becomes part of the problem and not a problem solver. You just hope that Sadeera Samarawickrama doesn’t go the same way for he was one player who was fully focused on his game.

Currently the culture within the Sri Lankan team is not so great. They are all happy go lucky men and no one is prepared to burn the midnight oil to become the best he can.

The term optional training should cease to exist if Sri Lanka were to become a force in the sport again. Optional training maybe a method that is good enough for professional outfits like Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa, but it doesn’t fit in with our system.

When the training is optional even the reserves who are not supposed to play the game fail to turn up for training, The purpose of optional training is to keep the players fresh. But the system has been abused. To make training optional, the Sri Lankans aren’t covering themselves in glory. The 16 catches that they spilled during the World Cup is proof for that and Sri Lanka were easily the worst fielding unit in the competition.

It is up to the selectors to look beyond players who are not willing to make sacrifices. As for the current panel they have no idea about what it means to groom a player. They have much to learn from men like Michael Tissera, Duleep Mendis and Sidath Wettimuny.

There is a lot of talk about Sri Lanka’s skill levels not being up with rest of the world. Well, that may be true but the players who have been chosen need to show more commitment than this.

The manner in which Kusal Mendis threw away his wicket time after time was a bitter pill to swallow. When the captain sets such standards what more do we have to say about the others. You always had doubts about Mendis the captain. Is he matured enough to take up a role as big as the leadership. Captaincy doesn’t only mean having a good cricket brain and owning a place in the side. A captain also has to be the ambassador of his nation. Be an example for others to follow. Mendis has a long way to get there.

The team’s culture of blaming everyone else for their woes rather than themselves is insane. Yes, Shakib-Al-Hasan was wrong to appeal for time out and not to withdraw his appeal. But what else do you expect from Shakib? He has been always like that, a spoil sport.

However much Angelo Mathews tries to defend his action, let’s not be blinded by the fact that the fault is only the opposition’s. Mathews is a smart bloke and you expected much from him. That can be even forgiven. What can not be forgiven is him endorsing the captain’s refusal to shake hands with the opposition. That was the last straw.

That’s not the way Sri Lankans play their cricket. We have had a captain who recalled a batsman after he had been given out wrongly and another captain who saved a World Cup final from ending in farce after the match officials had got things completely wrong. That’s the Sri Lankan style of playing the game. We need to change. Our culture needs to change.