Sri Lanka leave for World Cup hoping to reverse losing trend

by Rex Clementine

One of the most consistent teams at ICC events, there’s been never so much of uncertainty surrounding a Sri Lankan cricket team in the last 30 years.

In those three decades, when Sri Lanka left for a global event, they fancied their chances of making it to the semi-finals irrespective of form and all the internal squabbles. But this time, we live in hope that the team will qualify in the first place.

That they will do. Two wins over three up and coming teams should not be too much of a worry. However our planning could have been much better.

When a half a dozen seniors were benched from white ball cricket, the selectors were going to build the team on Danushka Gunatilleke, Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella. Once those three were kicked out on disciplinary grounds, it’s a dangerous ploy to scratch the barrel. But by then the selectors had burned bridges. Thisara Perera had retired and the team’s most experienced player Angelo Mathews made himself unavailable; basically telling the selectors to go and fly a kite.

The only one who seemed to be interested was Dinesh Chandimal. He was axed despite having scored a half-century in his last T20 innings in the Caribbean. When he returned, he wasn’t made a permanent fixture in the side but was made to carry water. Thankfully, he’s managed to get into the final squad and should keep wickets.

Sri Lanka first head to Oman, where they will play two T20 Internationals. They were expected to leave yesterday evening but the departure was delayed as Oman was experiencing turbulent weather. After the Oman leg, the team will travel to Abu Dhabi where two more warm-up games against Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea await Dasun Shanaka’s side. Then the tournament gets underway. Sri Lanka will play Namibia, Ireland and Netherlands and need to win two games to go through.

Kusal Janith Perera, who was nursing a hamstring injury is recovering and he’s expected to be fully fit by the time the qualifying round gets underway. A team that lacks experience and big hitting depend a lot on KJP. When fully fit, KJP looks to be in a different league altogether.