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| Saturday, 3 January 2004 |
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Decision on Sri Lankan captain by mid-January by Sa'adi Thawfeeq Chairman of cricket selectors Lalith Kaluperuma said that the captain and a squad of around 20 players for the five one-dayers and the three Tests against Australia starting next month will be picked by the middle of January. Kaluperuma said that no firm decision has yet been taken by the selection committee whether to pursue with two captains or to go for one captain for both forms of the game. "Coach John Dyson is away in Australia on holiday and he is not expected back until January 13. We will meet shortly after his return and then take a decision," said Kaluperuma. Following the resignation of Sanath Jayasuriya from the Sri Lankan captaincy in March last year, the selection committee headed by Kaluperuma decided to split the captaincy into two by appointing Marvan Atapattu for the one-day matches and Hashan Tillakaratne for the Tests. While Atapattu has proved his credentials with series victories over West Indies and England, Tillakaratne has somewhat struggled to come to grips with the Test captaincy. Since being appointed full time, he went through six Tests without a win before breaking the lean run with an innings victory over England in the final Test at the SSC which gave Sri Lanka a 1-0 win in the 3-Test series. After such a performance, the selectors are unlikely to ditch Tillakaratne overnight. "Hashan has his plus points as well as his minus points. Overall he has done a fair job as captain. Everyone would have been happy if the series result was 3-0 instead of 1-0, but it was not so," said Kaluperuma. "Hashan has been on the job for only nine months and seven Tests. It is not fair to judge him on so short a time. The captaincy will be discussed at length before we take a final decision," he said. Kaluperuma also said that Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara were other future candidates for the Sri Lankan captaincy. He said that Tillakaratne, who had a poor run with the bat during the England series averaging 15.60 with a top score of 45 and his deputy Atapattu, who averaged 20.75 with a top score of 35 should make use of the provincial tournament to get some runs behind them. "We picked Hashan purely on his batting. In any crisis he could be relied upon to pull the side out of trouble. He is experienced enough to do so. We need a man of his capabilities in the batting order," said Kaluperuma. He said the selectors will closely follow the provincial tournament matches and although the squad will be picked midway during the tournament, it would not mean that players who perform exceptionally well afterwards would be ignored. "We will bring players from outside the squad if necessary if they show good form during the tournament," he said. The chairman of selectors said one of the plus points to emerge out of the England series was that the top order batsmen had showed that they are getting over the bad habit of getting out in the 30s and 40s and are going on to make big scores. He was also happy the way the Sri Lanka 'A' team had performed in India to win the Kenstar one-day triangular against India and Pakistan. "Players like Russel Arnold, Jehan Mubarak and Prasanna Jayawardene have done well and we will have to consider them for the senior team whenever opportunities become available," he said. |
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