Sports
Let the selectors not fool us
by Rex Clementine
Are you not surprised that after Danushka Gunathilaka’s arrest in Sydney no one has resigned. Ideally, the National Selection Committee and Team Manager should have stepped down, but they are hanging on as if nothing happened. The team management clearly lost control of the players during the World Cup and it remains to be seen the outcome of the probe that has been launched.
There is a wide difference between an independent probe and an in-house probe. Afterall, when an independent probe was launched last time, the judge had recommended a two-year suspension on Danushka Gunathilaka. But it was reduced to six months. By sparing the rod the authorities spoilt the child.
Danushka was injured having played just one game. That was on the 16th of October. The physiotherapist had told the team management that he should be fine in five days’ time but even when they were in Perth ten days later, he had not recovered. Anyway, a decision had been taken to replace Danushka with Ashen Bandara. The team management at least at this point should have sent him home especially with additional replacements arriving from Colombo to be standby just in case there were further injuries.
With Danushka the team is always flirting with danger. Watching the team train from the sidelines in Sydney where you get a first-hand glimpse of how players go about things; you know his focus is not on cricket. So, how people who see him day in and day out failed to detect the same is mind-blowing.
Had Danuhska been in good form the selectors had ground to argue. His form was horrendous, just one double figure score in the last five innings and the last half-century coming in May 2021, that is 20 innings without a half-century, strange for a top order batter.
The other strange selection was that of Jeffrey Vandersay. The leg-spinner was a mere passenger not even playing a warm-up game in Australia. With Sri Lanka’s chances of going through to the semi-finals over, you at least thought that he would be given a break for the dead-rubber against England in Sydney. It was a track tailor-made for spin. However, they brought in Chamika Karunaratne, who had been dropped for the earlier game. Then, Chamika did not even get to bowl. It was a comedy of errors. The national cricket team deserves better than what’s been happening now. There’s lack of clarity and transparency in selections. What is worse is that there has been little communication on the decisions that have been taken.
Having come in with a highly publicized fitness regime, the selectors convinced the public that they will kick out anyone who failed to meet minimum fitness standards. It has turned out to be a publicity stunt. Part of the problem why so many players broke down during the World Cup was because they had dodged fitness tests. It now emerges that since the Asia Cup, fitness tests were not done on the requests of certain players. Players dictating terms and selection criteria is recipe for disaster. That’s what we witnessed during the World Cup.
Danushka’s incident took attention from Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign. Effectively, the team managed just four wins and failed to beat any of the top billed teams. In fact, they suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Namibia.
Sri Lanka’s top order clicked but the middle order was a flop. Had the middle order fired, the team could have beaten England which means they wouldn’t have gone onto win the World Cup. Sri Lanka could have also given Australia a closer run had the middle order clicked.
We are on the verge of a three-match limited overs series at Pallekele against Afghanistan and it is crucial for the team to gain automatic qualification for The World Cup. The selectors need to tell us as to why they think that the team is better off without someone like Angelo Mathews.
You have just finished a tournament where your middle order had been found wanting, should you not set your pride aside and be pragmatic and recall your senior-most batter?
One thing that you expect when selectors back young blood is that fielding to be top class. However, the current team’s fielding has been a letdown and the presence of a senior player is not going to adversely affect the team.
Sidath Wettimuny is the prime example of managing players when he was Chairman of Selectors. He introduced a similar aggressive youth policy after a poor World Cup campaign in 1999. However, he did not burn bridges. He kept the doors open for the seniors to bounce back and when the need arose they were accommodated. There were no grudges between him and players. As a result, Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Thilakaratne, who were both axed after the 1999 World Cup, were back in the team for the 2003 World Cup and Aravinda bowed off with his head held high.
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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