Cricket in shambles

by Rex Clementine

The national selection panel may have not addressed a single media briefing during their two-year stint so far but through handpicked social media platforms like YouTube channels they are quick to boast of their achievements. But their blunders are rarely discussed.

Pramodya Wickramasinghe’s cockeyed policies have taken Sri Lankan cricket from pillar to post. Under his watch, Sri Lanka have played three World Cup Qualifying rounds, the first time ever since 1979. During his tenure as Chief Selector, Sri Lanka also have suffered the heaviest defeat ever in ODIs early this year in Trivandrum. In fact, it is the worst defeat by any team in the history of ODI cricket that has been played for over half a century now. If you are still not convinced that he’s got to go, there was further proof as Sri Lanka crashed to their worst defeat ever in Test match cricket at home – by an innings and 222 runs at the SSC on Thursday. Do we need to say more? What a shame. Cricket is in total shambles.

Test wins over teams like Ireland in April made some believe that everything is tickety-boo with our cricket. But Pakistan badly exposed where exactly our cricket is. There have been far better Pakistani sides that have come to our shores and hadn’t achieved what the current team accomplished.

Saud Shakeel and Abdullah Shafique are not household names in cricket. One has played just seven Tests while the other has featured in 14 games. Yet both of them scored double hundreds, a feat that far more accomplished Pakistani batters like Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan and Azhar Ali failed to achieve in Sri Lanka. That basically sums up our bowling; toothless, ineffective, and lacks penetration.

A bull in a China shop is less troublesome than Pramodya. He’s got to go, no doubt. But let’s not make him the scapegoat by placing all the blame on the Chairman of Selector’s doorstep. Sri Lanka’s senior cricketers have forgotten the art of playing Test match cricket. They were horrible throughout the series and need a wake-up call.

To win the toss at SSC is a bonus. There’s no better batting wicket in the country than the Maitland Place ground. A first innings total of 400 plus is guaranteed when you win the toss at SSC. But you have got to give the first hour to the bowlers. Sri Lanka’s batters were like amateurs at SSC this week forgetting this cardinal rule.

They slumped to 36 for four in the first hour and with that went the chances of the team winning the Test match.

Sri Lanka’s batting in the first innings was like watching a horror movie. Dimuth Karunaratne pushing one to covers taking on Pakistan’s best fielder – Shan Masood – was a no-brainer. He had sold his partner Nishan Madushka down the river. It was a brain fade moment for the captain. More than anybody Dimuth should know the blueprint to succeed as a batsman at his home ground. But he looked not all there and conceded that he wanted to give up captaincy. The selectors and the captain, did they have an axe to grind? Did they have an argument before the Galle Test over the captain’s fitness? Mind you Dimuth had missed the World Cup Qualifiers final with injury.

Unlike the selectors, who shamelessly hang in there, disaster after disaster, Dimuth has some self-respect and wants to go when everyone seems to wonder why rather than when.

Dhananjaya de Silva is thought to be the captain in waiting but the manner in which he was dismissed in both innings at SSC was shocking. Pakistan on both occasions tempted him to take on the fielder and he fell into the trap throwing away his wicket.

The time has come for us to move on from the Kusal Mendis fantasy. Players when they are dropped bounce back with a vengeance. It has happened with so many of them. Why does that not happen with Mendis is a question? At times, in order to become a better player, you need to go through the mill. Remaining the blue-eyed boy and becoming undroppable is not going to do any good for you.

Immensely talented no doubt but the manner in which Mendis throws away his wicket is excruciatingly painful to watch. Throughout history, we have picked someone who placed a high premium on his wicket as our number three. In other words, the team’s most reliable guy. There was Roy Dias in the early days and he was succeeded by the ever-dependable Asanka Gurusinghe and then came Kumar Sangakkara. Replacing Sanga with Mendis is like making Rohita Bogollagama the successor to Saroja Sirisena as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK.

If it’s not funny, what’s funny is when Mendis is burning reviews when the ball is hitting the middle of the middle stump. His cricketing skills are outstanding, but his intelligence is below average. As Sanath Jayasuriya once said in his own inimitable style, ‘God doesn’t give everything to everyone. For Kusal, he has given plenty of talent but upstairs, he has left empty. You can give it for rent.’

Kudos to Pakistan. They had come here having drawn up some plans and they pulled them off in style. Barring some terrific bowling by Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi, there was nothing extraordinary about Pakistan’s spinners. To give away seven wickets in an innings to Noman Ali was a crime.

In Test cricket, you play the waiting game and cash in when the loose balls are on offer or when the bowlers are beyond their second spell. Sri Lankan batters’ patience ran thin. They have been an embarrassment in this series. The LPL had come early for them.

The second Test ended inside four days. But literally, it was a three-day game as only ten overs were possible on day two and one hour’s play was lost on day one. Test cricket is one format that Sri Lanka hadn’t done too badly. To lose a home series 2-0 was unimaginable. It’s time for fresh thinking.