Sri Lankan cricket needs the gumption of Yorkshire

(Continued from last week)

The road to doom continues as Sri Lanka flounders in India’s winter city of Nagpur, sooner than later our cricketers will be frozen on thin ice. Kholi and Co are playing marbles with our guys, are we witnessing the bleakest period of Sri Lanka cricket, we see Chandika Hathurusingha’s shadow looming large behind the higher ups at Sri Lanka Cricket. Thilan Samaraweera (with whom I had the good fortune of interviewing at his Berwick residence in Melbourne last year) has stated that there is no quick fix to succeed against Jadeja and Ashwin and he will need to study two tours down the road to correct whatever the kinks in our batsmen’s techniques. If one can reminisce Samaraweera was one of the best back foot players going around when our two greats Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene were showing the cricketing world that we were no nincompoops. Let Chandika Hathurusingha, one of the highest paid coaches going around and Samaraweera come into the mix. One cannot expect quick fix solutions, let them dive deep and get to the bottom of the shortcomings in our players techniques, fitness issues and whatever and give them time to sort out the muck.

Back to reminiscing and Kilburn’s “Overthrows” stated that any claim to a Yorkshire ‘gift’ for cricket is tenable only on the same terms as Welshmen are granted a gift, or flair for rugby football. There is nothing in Yorkshire air or Yorkshire turf that made a cricketer. Yorkshire men had no superiority of eye sight or muscle; they were neither freaks of nature or descended from Olympus. There tradition of cricketing dexterity was probably derived more from the by-products of economic development rather than any other single factor. Kilburn recalls that sheep and steel and coal were the basic ingredients of Yorkshire cricketing skills that emerged from the Industrial Revolution.

Rapid growth of population in a small area produced more players and keener competition in play. Sport in various forms was a natural reaction to the exacting labour of daily life; without the safety valve of cricket or football, the economic grind might have proved unendurable and anarchic. Kilburn noted that in the course of generations mine and mill created strengths and dexterities that were applicable to sport. The saying that “if you want a fast bowler shout down the pit” has a basis in reality, it would perhaps make an interesting metaphor between Moratuwa and Yorkshire where similarities are obvious, e.g. the furniture industry and the culture of the people (famous for baila, etc) of Moratuwa and the pits and mines of Yorkshire, both these communities consisted of hard working people. Sir Geoffrey Boycott was a Yorkshire product and our own Duleep Mendis and Romesh Kaluwitharana were Moratuwa born and bred, however the similarities end when it comes to their respective approaches. Boycott was dour in his approach, where Mendis and Kalu were flamboyant.

This book by Kilburn unearthed another interesting factor about Yorkshiremen - it stated that cloth making and engineering gave both delicacy of touch and the development of the left hand. Years and life times of piece work inculcated a spirit of determination and endurance - these two factors are clearly lacking in our batsmen who are pathetic in their approach to say the least and are showcasing there inabilities in India. A clear example is Mathews and Chandimal after getting into their fifties they close shop as if they were in a hurry to avoid the hostilities of the crowds and their opponents. Endurance is certainly lacking in them, whereas Virat Kholi and Co gets big hundreds and doubles as if it’s a normal day in office. Endurance is the name of the game.

Kilburn stated that man power resources alone would not necessarily create a cricketing community. Additionally, there must be a cricketing interest and a cricketing opportunity. The Yorkshire interest presumably devolved from the widening national interest during cricket’s nineteenth century development and opportunity came because improvised implements were readily obtainable and people were available for a game during breaks in working hours. Cricket was a convenient and a rewarding past time.

Kilburn also noted that cricket was rewarding not only through intrinsic pleasures but as a means to social distinction. The good cricketers were local ‘somebodies’ and the best cricketers could use cricket to escape the mine and the mill. Although the industrial south and the west Yorkshire spread far, the communities within the general area were small and closely knit. Centres of interest tended to be in a specific pit or foundry or workshop, inducting a sort of family loyalty and a competitive urge between unit and unit, as between brother and brother. Kilburn recalls that the playing representative was invested with responsibility made all the more evident by a close contact in work and play. If one dropped a vital catch or failed with the bat at a critical moment you were likely to be reminded of your short comings through the next weeks working hours.

The composite character attributed to Yorkshire cricket derived from geographical as well as human factors. Yorkshire is a northern county and the soft turning pitch was a common place or was before the days of compulsory covering. Spin bowling was rewarded, if spin bowling was accurate; defensive batting skills had to be learned if long innings were to be played. In such conditions bowlers and batsmen taught themselves to wait, to persevere and to concentrate. The decisive point of a match could occur in an hour, in an over, and the successful side or individual was the one ready to grasp and hold the fleeting opportunity.

Kilburn concludes by stating that the essence of hardness characterising Yorkshire cricket in its minor and major presentations. At its best, it is illustrated in determination to redeem lost causes, to face difficulties with unflinching resolution, to acknowledge defeat only when the last ball has been bowled. At its worst, it becomes an attitude of arrogance, blinkered view of an irritable reaction. In the one form of expression Yorkshire cricket, has won the respect and admiration of the cricketing world; in the other it has incurred dislike.