Pietermaritzburg is a distant memory

by Rex Clementine

Pietermaritzburg is a lovely city in South Africa, a short drive from Durban. It’s known mostly for one reason. It was here a young Indian lawyer was thrown off a train for travelling in a white only compartment. He’s known to the world as Mahathma Gandhi. Pietermaritzburg is also known for cricketing reasons. Chaminda Vaas took a hat-trick here off the first three balls of a World Cup game against Bangladesh. The game was over early and we filed our copies and were back in the hotel for lunch. Pietermaritzburg of course is a distant memory. Nowadays, Bangladesh is giving Sri Lankans a taste of their own medicine.

Sri Lanka lost the three match ODI series against Bangladesh without a fight. The first two games were painful to watch as the run chase had little planning and the batsmen caved in after being put under pressure.

Pace and bounce used to be Sri Lanka’s problems but suddenly you find that young players struggling against spin. The batting coach’s explanation was that there’s nothing wrong with technique or skill levels. They seem to be having no issues in the nets but suddenly out in the middle they run out of options.

In the first two games something that was evident was that the batters were unable to rotate the strike and the dot ball pressure resulted in them taking the aerial route.  On a track that is two paced, it is just a matter of time you miss time one attempting to clear the field. That is what happened to the Sri Lankans in the first two games.

That is why your domestic cricket has to be so important. Young players struggle to find their feet when they graduate to international cricket from domestic cricket and unless we fast track the Inter-Provincial tournament, make it an annual event; young players are going to struggle. Thankfully the Cricket Committee headed by former captain Aravinda de Silva are pushing for the Inter-Provincial tournament to be introduced without any delay.

The desired result, which is a series win, wasn’t achieved in Bangladesh. But that should not force us to go back to square one for our next assignment in England. Despite the defeat, the energy levels that were shown by this side was good to see. Based on this and given the fitness standards, the selectors have something to build up for the 2023 World Cup.

Yes, there’s the danger of the team missing out on automatic qualification. But that was a danger that was present even had they persisted with seniors. What will happen now is even if Sri Lanka is relegated to the qualifying round, they have given exposure for young players who will be up for the challenge against weaker nations and earn the team a slot for the World Cup.

Bangladesh currently are formidable opponents. Four of their players have gone onto play over 200 ODIs each and that’s quite a lot. Sri Lanka’s most experienced player has barely 100 games to his name. So while the defeat is hard to stomach, you have got to look at the larger picture than crying over spilt milk.

It doesn’t mean that everything is honky-dory. For example not playing Niroshan Dickwella was a mistake. On a wicket where spinners were dominating his sweeps and reverse sweeps were missed. Also the team was depending too much on all-rounders than sticking to specialists. Ramesh Mendis looks a class act and his off-spin helped dismiss Mushfiqur Rahim in the third ODI. The series was lost by then. Mushfiqur made more than 200 runs in the first two games. Should they have played Ramesh from the start?

Whilst looking at the long term plan, the selectors also need to keep an eye on the short term plans.  For example, before the 2023 50 over World Cup, we will have two T-20 World Cups this year and next year. Can some of the seniors still contribute in the T-20 format or are we in good hands with the youngsters is an interesting question.

For some time the team has underachieved and not put in their best efforts you sensed from the outside. They perhaps needed a jolt like this to drive home some harsh points.