Monday: Nic Pothas may not have great credentials as a cricket coach but when it comes to brass tacks he is certainly no stranger.
Following Sri Lanka’s heaviest Test defeat by an innings and 239 runs at the hands of India here today, Pothas in a no holds barred press conference said Sri Lanka needs to pick the right players who can perform under pressure and get rid of those who keep on making the same mistakes.
“When things get tough some people fall off the bus some get better. The key is to make sure we are picking people or more people that are likely to stay on the bus when the pressure goes up, that is the nature of professional sport,” said Pothas.
“Cricket is a game of chess and when you play a team like India if one team makes a move, you better have a counter move. If you don’t, you will fall off that bus. At the moment we got a few in our change room who keep making the same move and losing pieces off the chess board.
“You can talk all you want to and you can plan a lot but at the end of the day you’ve got to execute your plans in the middle. As a player your currency is runs, wickets and catches you can do all you like but if you are not producing them obviously there will be repercussions. That’s the world of professional sport,” he said.
“Suffering the heaviest defeat is hugely disappointing because of the amount of work ethics that goes in behind the scenes. It is embarrassing the players should be embarrassed by their own performances. Practicing at the nets means nothing, if you do not go out and put runs on the board.”
Pothas pointed out the percentage of boundaries Sri Lanka hit in their second innings was amazingly high in comparison to India when they compiled up their massive total of 610-6 declared.
“When the percentage of your score is so high in boundaries against a high quality attack you are going to get into a lot of trouble. India for example in their score of 610 their boundary percentage was 37, that’s how they got their runs. We are talking about the top batters in the world. If 37 percent is good enough for them then it surely should be good enough for us,” said Pothas.
Replying to a question on whether it was a wise choice to play the number one ranked team India in back to back series, Pothas said, “I firmly believe that if you play a team like India in such a short space of time twice 6 Test matches, the guys with the right characters which I keep talking about and keep asking for will get better into the future. As long as the curve is in a general upward trend and when you look down the line that person’s going to get better.
“It’s tough, the answer you will probably get 18 months to 2 years whether this was a good idea or not to play India twice. Personally as a coach I find it hugely exciting, I’ve learnt a lot in the last series and in the short time we’ve been here and continue to learn more.”
Pothas believed that four-day domestic cricket for Sri Lanka is a ‘must’ to address the current trend of dismal batting displays in Test cricket.
“Playing three-day cricket is a huge contributing factor. If we have a format that gives you opportunity to bat 4-6 hours its unfair on our part to ask batters to come and try replicate that in a Test match against high quality bowling,” said Pothas.
“That is being addressed. Kumar (Sangakkara) and Mahela (Jayawardene) have spoken about that at length and it is being heeded. Once we get into a 4-day format of high quality cricket it will actually make it easier to select people based on results rather than any other factors.”
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