A rare learning experience

SRI LANKA'S under 19 cricketers will embark on a tour of England next month and on them rest the future of the country's cricket. It is these cricketers who will make up the senior team in another five years or so and on them lays a great responsibility of how good our national sides are going to be in the future.

It is not the results that matter so much in such contests although a win brings a great deal of confidence and inspiration to the players, but how many will make it to the national team?

The team which Angelo Mathews leads has been picked after the national selectors had viewed nearly one hundred prospective candidates from schools all over the country.

To be selected in the final 14 will not only need a great deal of luck but also these players should be the best among the best of what the country's schools can produce.

As any international cricketer will tell you, no one's career is complete without a tour of England. Why they say it is because the conditions and pitches in that country vary so much during a day that it is an experience no other cricket playing country can give you.

A tour of England is totally different from others. And it is a true fact.

One clear example is when Sri Lanka made their maiden Test appearance at Lord's against England in 1984. One can recall how hazy it was when the two captains David Gower of England and Duleep Mendis of Sri Lanka went out to toss.

Gower won the toss and looking towards the heavens invited Sri Lanka (then the minnows of Test cricket) to bat first anticipating the conditions would make the ball swing for his bowlers. Mind you the toss took place half an hour before play began.

Everyone in the press box was of the opinion that Sri Lanka will be steam rolled inside three days with their total inexperience of playing under such conditions. But lo and behold when the two Sri Lankan openers Sidath Wettimuny and Amal Silva walked out they were greeted with sunshine.

The conditions had changed dramatically within those few minutes! Although England achieved two early breakthroughs, Sri Lanka ended the first day on a high note at 226-3. The rest is history.

Sri Lanka's performance not only brought them a host of new admirers but the most important fact was that none of the 11 players picked for the Test had played at Lord's before, but yet three of them Wettimuny (190), Mendis (111 & 94) and Silva (102 n.o.) went onto make centuries.

Thus the 14 players picked to represent Sri Lanka in the forthcoming under 19 series against England where they will pit their wits in two 4-day tests and in three one-day internationals should consider themselves fortunate to be given such a rare learning experience which some of them may never get in their entire career.

How much a season in England can help improve the mental skills of a cricketer can be gauged by the change that underwent the career of Aravinda de Silva, one of the finest batsmen produced by Sri Lanka.

There was no doubt that De Silva was destined to become a world class batsman from his schooldays. He was fortunate to come through one of the best cricket coaches Sri Lanka ever had in W.A.N. Silva while at D.S. Senanayake College.

Even after he left his alma mater De Silva still went to his former coach whenever he was out of form and was struggling for runs to rectify any mistakes that might have crept into his technique.

Until he signed a season with English county Kent in 1995, De Silva was known to be a brash batsman guilty of throwing his wicket away when well set for a big innings. For the first eleven years of his international career De Silva earned such names as 'Mad Max' and 'Metal Mickey' because of his impulsive approach to the game.

One prolific season with the county changed all that. He became more disciplined in his approach and his wicket was one of the hardest to get in Test cricket as he improved his number of Test centuries from seven in the first half of his career to 20 by the end of the second half.

The career of De Silva is a good example for all the youngsters to follow. One hopes they learn from the English experience and come out fully fledged cricketers who would carry the country forward to becoming the best in the sport. On their young shoulders lie the country's future hopes.