National cricket coach Mickey Arthur and his charges failed once again to deliver the goods and the Sri Lanka team tasted their fourth consecutive defeat, this time at the hands of England by a margin of six wickets, while losing the series by 2-0 at Galle Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
After a disastrous tour of South Africa where the team was whitewashed 2-0, many expected the Lankan camp would be rejuvenated since they were playing on home soil and put up a much-improved performance. But all their aspirations were shattered and short lived as the hosts were outplayed by the Englishmen within a space of four days in both matches, when victory was within their grasp.
Once again, the batsmen have to be blamed for their inability to play the much-needed long innings, which led the team down immensely in this series. After winning the much important toss on both occasions under ideal conditions for batting, the specialist players included in the team as batters, failed to perform the much important task of scoring runs and posting a formidable total .
The top order, spearheaded by the dashing left hander Kusal Janith Perera and Lahiru Thirimanne, failed to give the required start.
Thirimanne scoring a century and Kusal Janith hitting a quick fire 60 odd in the first Test just threw away their wickets due to improper shot selection. Both were trapped by deliveries bowled just outside the off stump which they either edged behind or were trapped leg before wicket.
The question raised frequently by the cricketing fraternity is why don’t the coaching staff insist these players, especially Kusal Janith to play the sheet anchor role and spend more time at the crease? He is a batsman who is capable of making a big score with his wide range of strokes. Test cricket is all about spending more time at the crease without flashing the blade at every ball, but playing on their merit. Sheer determination and dedication are the main weapons for a batsman to succeed.
The performance of the top and middle order has not been consistent, which led the team to suffer enormously and restricted to low scores. The team had to rely on the tail enders, who are mainly bowlers.
The best example was the contributions made by Dilruwan Perera in the first innings, and the pivotal role played by Lasith Embuldeniya in the second, which saved the face of the Lankans and helped at least to post a reasonable total.
Apart from the openers, the strokes played by Oshada Fernando, Angelo Mathews, skipper Dinesh Chandimal and Niroshan Dickwella were highly unnecessary at that moment, which was simply suicidal.
The other notable point of the match was the performance of the English bowlers. The two pacemen shared the wickets to fall on a newly made wicket without any cracks on it, and the second innings was dominated by the two spinners. Comparing this performance, what was the output of our seamers? Both Suranga Lakmal and Asitha Fernando went wicketless after bowling on a wicket after Sri Lanka batted first
Overall, the performance of the team has been at a very low ebb, and the two series defeats in South Africa and home have pushed them to seventh position in the ICC Test Rankings after they were slated at fifth place before the commencement of the Proteas tour.
Any team preparing for a series will do a feasibility study on their opponents strengths and weaknesses before they take them on. But the Lankan camp with four foreign coaches - batting, bowling, fielding and the head coach, along with several support staff - gave a very low performance, which raises the question: is it worth spending so much? What have the so-called computer analysts evaluated on the hosts weaknesses and the study on their opponents so far?
The cricket loving public are of the view that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) seriously look into these aspects to make sure these officials who are accompanying the team are worthy to be retained and whether they are performing their job properly.
It is high time that SLC should introduce a scheme in motivating the players’ based on their performances, including their fitness levels, which became the talk of the town for quite some time.
It is also high time SLC did away with contracting players by paying them thumping amounts, and instead pay them on a per Test basis, i.e. a player selected for a Test will be paid a certain amount.
This will motivate the players to pull up their socks, for as things stand, whether they perform or not, or even if they don’t play due to injury, they are assured of their monthly retainer.
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