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by Sharm de Alwis

Some random thoughts are opportune now that our cricketers have returned from South Africa after their pathetic display in virtually every game in which they played. It was quite apparent to viewers that the mind set of the players was awry and that they did not have a Plan B to change course when they hit the rapids.

We played with five players - Sanath, Marvan, Aravinda, Murali and Vaas. Others were passengers. Mahela should not even have been on board. Avishka and Mubarak were kept on ice and Mubarak, without match practice, when given the nod, was pushed in at the deep end with Bret Lee on fire.

Sangakkara is of the Ian Healey School of Chat and it has clearly affected his glove work. The turning points in the semi-finals were when he missed stumping Andrew Symonds and also when he called a 37-year-old veteran for a quickie. Aravinda at that time, was well set and appeared to wrest the initiative from the Aussies.

The fielding, by and large, was atrocious; we were seeing old women gather sticks. Overthrows were conceded by inept backing-up.

Aravinda was awe-inspiring and Atapattu was also in the driving seat, matching Aravinda in the fast lane. Our pacies occasionally hurled the short one admirably, going for the jugular. Murali continued to be the miser in conceding runs and grabbed 17 wickets in the tournament just six wicket less than Vaas who took 23 wickets to set up a new record in the World Cup series.

Three guys stood out in their grace, not going for raptures and hoasannahs when they captured even a prize wicket - Murali, Aravinda and Vaas. It was commendable to have brought in late our fastest bowler, Dilhara, as he, like Donald, sprays the new ball wide. He has a penchant to bowl the no-ball even when attacking a plastic chair.

The selectors persisted with Mahela even though he was hopelessly out of form. Did they gamble on the law of averages and keep gifted Avishka and Mubarak in their seats? The Cricket Board is guilty of paying sinecures handsomely. It can, instead, spread its largesse amongst the Clubs.

Was it not complacency that made Sanath declare before the match against Kenya that "Kenya is better than Canada"? Most of the players were not focussed on cricket. Filthy lucre has been their mammon. When they started their nonsense in Australia, they should have been given the handshake and we should have played with our second string who would have acquitted themselves better.

What more can we expect from Whatmore? He has reached a blind alley as far as SL cricket is concerned and should be put to grass.

These are some of the salient features which led to our debacle in the World Cup and if I rooted for NZ to win over India in the run up to semis it was not to envisage the torching of homes of the Indian players; it was so that SL would have been eliminated but there are more gods in the Indian pantheon than in the New Zealanders' heaven. It is good for our players to known that our enthusiasm falls short of a desire to burn effigies.

In the light of the above, had we come into the finals, it would have been a gross miscarriage of justice and I would have pondered, "ye gods and little fishes, what did we do to deserve caviar when Rob Smythe also considered ours the worst team in the semi-finals?"

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