Archives

From the Press Box by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The Sri Lankan cricketers are in Australia and our prayers are with them for their success and that they would perform to expectations by playing to their true potential. The Australian tour gives Sri Lanka the last opportunity before the World Cup to rectify the mistakes they made on the fast and bouncy pitches in South Africa.

The Australian pitches are similar to those in South Africa and provides bounce and movement aplenty and Sri Lanka could not have asked for a better way to prepare themselves for the mega event in South Africa than tours to these two countries who are one-two in world cricket today.

What happened to them in South Africa may be history to some, but if a fine toothcomb is used on their performances it will reflect clearly that they had not done their homework properly and prepared in accordance to what they would expect under those conditions.

It seems they have not learnt from the lessons of their tour to South Africa in 2000-01 and made the same mistakes over and over again.

The result then and now was damningly nearly the same. On the 2000-01 tour they lost the Test series 2-0 (1 drawn) and the one-day series 5-1. On this occasion it was 2-0 in the Tests and 4-1 in the one-dayers. This is how Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, often referred to as the cricketers' 'Bible' reported our performances on the 2000-01 tour: "Disappointingly, the Sri Lankans never adapted to the conditions and were hammered.

Inappropriate slashes and tendency to push at deliveries wide of off stump were the constant undoing of their top-order batsmen whose collective fate was epitomized by their captain, Sanath Jayasuriya in the Third Test - caught at third man upper cutting in the ninth over of the innings." From the present tour party, all except newcomers like Jehan Mubarak, Hasantha Fernando, Sujeewa de Silva, Chamila Gamage, Thilina Thushara,Tharanga Lakshitha, Prasanna Jayawardene and veteran Hashan Tillakaratne, made the last tour to South Africa. But from the manner in which they performed it appears they have not learnt from past lessons.

It was soon after this disastrous tour to South Africa that on the initiation of the then Sports Minister Lakshman Kiriella, that the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) embarked on a project to acquire a section of the R. Premadasa Stadium and prepared 16 fast pitches at a cost of Rs. 13 million.

This was done for the benefit of the national teams - senior and those below, so that they could gain valuable practice on how to cope with bounce and movement ahead of tours to country's like South Africa, Australia etc. But it seems that those who matter and are connected with the running of the national team have failed to make the maximum use of this rather expansive facility, which had been done largely for the benefit of the national cricketers.

The BCCSL's director of operations Bandula Warnapura came up with a startling revelation at the media conference held early this week by saying, had the national team made use of the facilities properly at the R. Premadasa Stadium they would not have fared so badly in South Africa.

Warnapura accused the national team of removing the grass invariably whenever they used the pitches for practice, thus nullifying the effect of bounce and movement. "If the grass is shorn off then you don't get the full effect of practicing on surfaces that afford bounce and movement," he said. Warnapura stressed that the BCCSL should take steps to ensure that the practice facilities should be utilized to the full for what it was originally meant for.

Otherwise he said the whole purpose of putting up such pitches was lost. Why the national team should resort to such tactics at practice is rather baffling but at least we know partly, why our team is struggling to come to terms with bounce and movement whenever they go overseas.

What the national cricketers must realize is that they cannot run away from a problem. They've got to buckle down and try to work out a ploy to get over whatever shortcomings they have. Failure to do so will reflect on their performances abroad. The recent tour to South Africa is a glaring example.

Jayasuriya, the opener

The failure of Sanath Jayasuriya as an opener in South Africa poses the question whether it is advisable for him to drop down the order. This sort of suggestion may not be everyone's cup of tea because the Master Blaster earned that name as a destructive opening batsman in one-day cricket, which paved the way for a successful World Cup for Sri Lanka in 1996. But since then other countries have found out ways and means to curb his stroke play, especially on fast bouncy tracks.

If his record in South Africa is reviewed, the best course of action is for him to come down the order because he is a batsman capable of scoring from the first ball whatever position he bats. Jayasuriya's early dismissals in South Africa have put enormous pressure on the middle-order and only once did they succeed against Shaun Pollock's high class bowling attack - at Benoni. In the recently concluded one-day series, Jayasuriya was dismissed for 7 (6th over), 46 (10th over), 22 (8th over), 27 (16th over), and 2 (2nd over).

Jayasuriya's is a big wicket, and dismissing him so early in an innings gives the fielding side an enormous amount of confidence and puts them on top. Even on the previous tour to South Africa in 2000-01, Jayasuriya hardly lasted the first 15 overs, his scores in the six one-day internationals were 3, 7, 66, 12, 23 and 6. The present line up to Australia sees Jayasuriya being partnered again by Romesh Kaluwitharana. The question is whether Sri Lanka is going to adopt the same or sometimes abandoned tactic used six years ago?

Kaluwitharana's return as opener has pushed Kumar Sangakkara down the batting order, a position he is never going to succeed because he is not a fast scoring batsman like Jayasuriya or Kaluwitharana. Like Marvan Atapattu, Sangakkara needs time to get the runs flowing from his bat and the best position for him is at no. 3, which means that either Jayasuriya or Kaluwitharana will have to drop down the order. Are the tour selectors listening?

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager