While the Sri Lankan National cricket team exited from the ICC T20 World Cup with a convincing win over defending champions West Indies, various allegations have been levelled against the coaching staff of the team after they narrowly failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the Twenty 20 Cricket World Cup, which is now in progress in the United Arab Emirates till the 14th of this month.
One of the former players who was a member of the 1996 World Cup winning side, who was reluctant to disclose his name owing to various reasons, raises questions whether the young Sri Lankan team played in the Super 12 round of the tournament with proper guidance and a well executed plan, using all the resources provided by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) administration for the betterment of the team? Were our coaches geared up to the task?
“The SLC will have to conduct post-motem over these coaches output which I believe was not upto the anticipated standarrd he said. The team is young with immense talent. It is just a matter guiding them properly as and when it is needed. I believe that our coaches have failed to deliver the goods and had they done it then the results would have been much productive than this.” said the former player.
Many past cricketers say it is high time SLC evaluated the whole process and make a wise decision on the current coaching staff, who have ultimately failed to deliver the results anticipated. Former National player, the legendary Mahela Jayawardene, who has the best statistics in this format of the game, was drafted in for a short stint to mentor the team and to share his experience.. He made some tactical moves which enabled the team to remain unbeaten in the qualifiers and reserve a berth in the Super 12 competition. This is the first time such a coaching position was created, while several other coaches failed to make an impact. During his tenure with the team in the UAE, Mahela assessed the team and made a couple of strategic changes in the batting order, and built confidence in the players which produced the desired results. Subsequently, the time has come to raise questions about the responsibility of the current coaching staff of the team.
Tom Moody of Australia is the Director of Sri Lanka Cricket, Mickey Arthur of South Africa is the Head Coach, Grant Flower of Zimbabwe is the batting coach, Piyal Wijetunga is the Spin Coach, Chaminda Vaas is contracted as the bowling coach, while Brett Harrop of Australia and Grant Luden of South Africa are trainers and Shirantha Niroshan is the data analyst. SLC is spending billions of rupees as wages on these specialized positions, but the real concern is have they performed their job well, and if the answer is yes, why can’t this young set of players continue their winning streak?
It is high time cricket’s governing body make a serious study whether these coaches have really put in an effort by using their knowledge and guiding the team on to the winning path. Looking back and conducting a post-mortem is an essential factor to transform the team to win future tournaments. When one identifies an error of a player during a match, the coaching staff should be vigilant to correct him by sending a message through a reserve player to guide him, which was lacking with the Lankan camp. However, it was observed all other teams utilized their reserve players frequently as when the situation demanded.
Analysing the last two games against South Africa and England, it was apparent a proper feasibility study on the behaviour of the Sharjah turf had not been done, which ended up in Sri Lanka losing both games after having a firm control. The result would have been much different if the coaches had guided the players to identify the problems that arise on the practical level, rather than flipping through books and giving appropriate advice on the spot.
SLC Chief Shammi Silva and his team should be commended for making attempts to resolve the various crises within the National team, including the player contracts. Important steps were taken to end the factionalism in the team and create a disciplined background, where unfortunately some talented players also had to be punished in the recent past for breaching the team’s code of conduct. But the failure of the coaches to come up with a proper plan is currently the most serious setback.
Coaches have a major responsibility to monitor the performance of their players using the modern technology available. A serious evaluation followed by some wise decisions will see the team being prevented from sinking further into the doldrums.
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