Think tank, the crying need

So Sri Lanka 'A' beat England 'A' in the second unofficial cricket test to share the two-match series one-all. The result does not mean that we should rest on our laurels and assume that everything is hunky-dory. It is far from it.

There is a lot of careful planning and work needed to be done if we are to find a strong second string team of players to supplement the senior side.

At the moment there is no one good enough to replace the seniors and put pressure for places which is why the five 'A' tours scheduled to take place this year are of vital importance.

England and Pakistan are already here and they will be followed by West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand. If by the end of it SLC has still not found a suitable squad to replace the seniors then it is bound to have a dramatic effect on our cricket future.

The crying need of Sri Lanka cricket is for a think tank to map out strategies so that the most talented and potential players in the country are rounded up and given all the necessary facilities and encouragement to fill in the shoes of the seniors if and when a replacement is required.

The lack of such competition to the senior side is why you find names like Hashan Tillakaratne, Russel Arnold keep surfacing time and again whenever matters of selection come up.

There is certainly something lacking in the 'A' and junior sides for the cricketing standards to drop to this level. The standards sad to say has gone from bad to worse in the last two decades or so. It is high time SLC arrested the decline.

One of the major problems one sees is that there is no proper co-ordination amongst the various SLC committees and associations. the cricket, selection, development, operations, schools and academy should be in constant touch with each other so that the end product is a strong team to supplement the senior side.

Why Australia is such a strong cricketing force in the world is because of a strong second team that has players equally good as those playing in the senior side.

It is not that SLC do not have the men to become think tanks. They have within their midst three former Test captains whose knowledge of the game if pooled together should enable SLC to come out of this crisis.

All of them are holding on to exalted positions at SLC. Bandula Warnapura, the country's first Test captain is the director operations, Duleep Mendis; another distinguished past captain plays the role of chief executive officer as well as director development.

Then there is Aravinda de Silva, one of the finest batsmen produced by the country who is a vice president and heads SLC's cricket committee.

The cricket committee itself comprises several prominent past cricketers and distinguished coaches namely Ranjit Fernando, Duleep Mendis, Bandula Warnapura, Jerome Jayaratne, Malcolm Perera, Sudath Pasqual, Lionel Mendis, Ranjan Madugalle, Lalith Kaluperuma and Roshan Mahanama.

What is required is that someone should be made responsible for the development of future players. There should be an effective plan implemented so that there is a co-ordinated work set up and thoughts properly channelled.

Time and again investigations must be made to check whether talent scouting is done properly, whether the right potential players are being taken into the academy for training, whether the academy is functioning in a manner to suit the needs of the country's requirements, whether the players who are taken in are nurtured properly and crystallized to perform for the country, is there anything wrong with the selection policy of players?

Jerome Jayaratne who heads the Sri Lanka cricket academy expressed confidence that of the 20 players who finished off in December last year at least five to six had the potential to make the grade, but cautioned that what these players lacked was constant exposure to first-class cricket.

"They are short of match experience and need at least four to six seasons of first-class cricket to get there" said Jayaratne.

He said that two of the players from the last batch left-arm fast bowler Chanaka Wijekoon and wicket-keeeper/batsman Gihan de Silva were picked for the Sri Lanka 'A' squad for the series against England 'A' while de Silva, Chintaka Perera and Harsha Vithana have gone to Pakistan representing Sri Lanka under 19.

He said the selection of players to the academy was done by the national selectors in concurrence with the director operations.

Today there is a vast contrast of quality Test players coming out of the schools compared to two decades ago. There was a time when a schoolboy would walk into the national side as did Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva and several others after them.

The last quality player to emerge from the schools and play for the country was Mahela Jayawardene, but even he has not lived upto expectations performing only in fits and starts. Kumar Sangakkara is of course a rare exception.

Has SLC made any attempt to take the trouble and inquire into why the standards had dropped so drastically and come up with a remedy to rectify the matter?