Not playing cricket extremely frustrating – Arthur

by Rex Clementine

Sri Lanka’s Head Coach Mickey Arthur has spent almost a year in the job, yet his team has played just one game in Colombo in that period. Such has been the devastating effect of the pandemic that he might end his two year stint with Sri Lanka Cricket without ever being involved in a game at RPS.

This was supposed to be a bumper year for cricket in Sri Lanka with the country set to host four bilateral series plus the Asia Cup. Arthur had drawn up his plans in a bid to bring the team back to the glory days but those plans have been halted due to COVID-19. There was lot of hope that cricket will resume later this month with Bangladesh set to travel for a three match Test series but that has been put off due to quarantine disputes.

“It has been extremely frustrating for me as I am watching live cricket in England, UAE and other parts of the world but we are not playing any cricket,” Arthur told The Island. Sri Lanka have not played any international cricket since February.

“We were all excited about this year. It was a tough year no doubt with some challenging assignments but we were excited about the challenges. The players were shaping up well and the West Indies series we could see a real improvements in many areas. We wanted to build on that and we were heading in the right direction with the Test and ODI teams. We have to do lot of work with the T-20 team but we had our plans in place. We were getting better always.”

“I must tell you that the board has done everything to ensure that our training has been top notch. There has been lot of effort put in by our officials to resume cricket. I want to complement every player in our squad. They have been committed to training and they have brought incredible attitude for training. Great to see they get better technically, physically and mentally. That is why it has been frustrating not to have any cricket. They are ready and I have not seen an international team like this so ready to take on the challenge.”

For the last six months Arthur has been confined to his hotel room. He has not had an opportunity to visit his family. “My family is grown up. They lead their own life. My eldest daughter lives in South Africa. My other two daughters are in Perth. My eldest has given birth to a child so I am a grandfather now. I thought it’s my responsibility to remain in Sri Lanka and work with the boys. So, Grant Flower and I stayed back. I felt the need to give the leadership for boys’ training sessions. They have been quite amazing.”