Let’s learn from Sanga

by Rex Clementine

We tend to place the blame on the doorstep of the administration, selectors and coaches for the setbacks our cricket has suffered in recent times. Our chances of making it to the semi-finals of the sport’s showpiece event are fading away fast. True, the administration needs to accept part of the blame. But, what about the players themselves? They too are responsible for our downfall.

A decade and half ago, when we literally reached the finals of every ICC event, the administration was probably worse than this. But thankfully we had players like Kumar Sangakkara, who always punched above their weight. Sanga’s extraordinary success as a batsman and captain was due to the fact that he worked extremely hard and left no stone unturned.

In mid 1990s, in school cricket the name of Kumar Sangakkara was unheard of. It was his contemporaries that everyone was talking of so highly such as Mahela Jayawardene from Nalanda, Avishka Gunawardene and Thilan Samaraweera from Ananda and Upekha Fernando from S. Thomas’.

Yet, Sanga not only outperformed all of them but ended up as Sri Lanka’s highest run getter in Test and ODI cricket. How was that possible?

We adore Roy Dias’ batting, but we do not give enough credit to what he has achieved as a coach. One day he was working with the Sri Lanka under-19 team at NCC and spotted a left-handed batsman playing some drives in the nets. Roy was quick to spot the class in those drives and realized it was Sanga who had turned up on his own for the nets.

There was no Paul Farbrace or Trevor Bayliss to do the throw downs. No other coach from SLC had been asked to come to NCC either. Sanga’s driver was doing the throw-downs and our man kept going until the point the driver’s arm started paining and he said enough. That was Sanga. Steve Waugh may have written the book titled ‘Out of my comfort zone’ but the guy who really went out of his comfort zone in search of excellence was Sanga.

Let’s not miss the point here. What amazed Roy Dias was not a Sri Lankan cricketer getting his driver to do the throw-downs. What impressed him was that Sanga had arrived in Colombo only that morning having finished a Test match in Bangladesh where he had scored a triple hundred in the first innings and a hundred in the second innings. Roy told the under-19 kids to make Sanga their role model. There was Charith Asalanka, Pathum Nissanka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Asitha Fernando and many others in that under-19 side and they were in awe of the great man.

Sanga’s insatiable appetite for excellence stood the national cricket team in good stead.

First innings failure for Sanga in a Test match invariably meant more work for the coaching staff as he would spend hours trying to figure out what error he had made to be dismissed and how he could avoid a repeat.

Former opening batsman Brendon Kuruppu doesn’t get the credit that he deserves for identifying rare talents. It was he who wanted Sanga to be fast tracked into the senior side. Sidath Wettmiuny, the Chairman of Selectors, agreed to give him a go and Sanga never looked back.

Sanga was indeed a sloppy keeper when he came into the side. Whether it is legend Ian Healey or contemporary Prasanna Jayawardene, Sanga was quick to chat to them on keeping and by the time he retired, his keeping was at a different level.

But it was as a batsman that he set the benchmark. He wasn’t merely pleased with the drives and pulls and cuts, but was always exploring and having spent many hours with Graham Ford, he executed the paddle sweep and ramp shot too in white ball cricket to everyone’s surprise towards the tail-end of his career.

Sanga’s success as a batsman was not due to raw talent, mental toughness, luck or anything else. It was pure hard work and hours of training. As captain, he would smartly leave out the ones who were seeking easy way outs, especially if they were younger ones. His captaincy for the press was a nightmare for he never turned up on time for media briefings. However, none of us were complaining as he was busy fine tuning his skills going beyond the training schedules. It was a maniac schedule indeed. Everyone is in awe of Virat Kohli’s training methods. Sanga’s were equally insane, but very effective and brought out the best of him.

We have been extremely fortunate to see two of the finest batsmen produced by our nation. Aravinda de Silva of course was pure talent. Kumar Sangakkara was the complete opposite. His mantra for success was work, work and more work.

Arjuna Ranatunga often says that we will not see another player like Aravinda for the next 50 years.

But you tend to think that you don’t have to wait for 50 years to see another Sanga because with a work ethic like his anybody can get there.

Sadeera Samarawickrama has got that work ethic of Sanga. But he’s a bit too late at the age of 28. Pity that we didn’t have selectors like Guy de Alwis, Michael Tissera and Ashantha de Mel, who are able to read what  a player can offer by simply looking at the way he trains.The current selectors have had a three year stint. It’s been a disastrous one and they need to pack their bags as soon as the World Cup is over.