Running scared

FORMER coach John Dyson said it and now current coach Tom Moody is saying it, that Sri Lanka should improve their dismal track record overseas.

Well, for that to become a reality Sri Lanka should start making preparations at home to counter pitches they will encounter abroad. But the way pitches are being prepared for matches at home the vision of improving our record overseas seems a far-fetched one.

It is no secret that whatever opposition Sri Lanka takes on at home, they don't like to see any greenness on the pitch. They want virtually every blade of grass cut making it more or less look like a clay pitch, which we quite often see today with the US Open tennis in full swing. They always insist on a flat wicket without grass.

When the mental attitude of the national cricketers towards leaving grass on the pitch is such, how can one hope to improve and be successful when they tour abroad?

From the way things are moving it seems the captain calls all the shots. If he is an opening batsman the chances are that there won't be any grass on the pitch. We had two in the past six years.

Having any greenness on the surface is anathema to them because they feel their task of scoring runs successfully can be curbed and the chances of being dismissed cheaply greater by the early swing and movement of the ball, which is quite usual with any first day pitch.

This is the mental block that most of our senior players have. Unless they overcome it they will continue to fail outside the subcontinent.

Why does a cricket team have specialist batsmen? The job of the opening batsmen is to tackle the new ball and see it off. Surely there will be some moisture in the morning and the ball will swing in the first session of play.

But that is why you have two batsmen who are specialized in this area to go and open the innings for you and face the new ball. Otherwise you can send any one of the other nine players to bat in that position.

Are the senior players scared of failure and losing their place in the team that they resort to tactics of this nature, which has over the years been detrimental to our performances overseas?

Even the practice pitches they prepare at home have been flat and devoid of grass. So when will our batsmen ever learn to cope with the swinging ball?

Next summer they will be in England for three Tests and a good number of one-day internationals. Mind you they are due to tour in the early part of the English summer from May to July when the pitches are fresh and the weather cold and clammy.

It is no secret that our players like to have the sun on their backs to feel closer to home, but English conditions are not going to offer them that luxury.

If we don't make a start now how will our batsmen tackle the likes of Steve Harmison, Simon Jones, Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Hoggard and Co who are giving the Aussies a rough ride in the on-going Ashes series?

If the top team in the world, the Australians are finding it extremely difficult handling this quartet of fast bowler what chance have our batsmen against them, brought up on subcontinent pitches where the ball hardly moves?

What the current Ashes series has produced is that England for so long on the sidelines is emerging to become a force in world cricket once again and that the Aussies domination is on the wane.

Over-rated?

Is Dilhara Lokuhettige being highly over-rated? From the way he has been handled it seems so. The 24-year-old all-rounder came into prominence from virtual obscurity when he made an immediate impact in the third unofficial test for Sri Lanka 'A' against West Indies 'A' at the Saravanamuttu Stadium with contributions of 57 and 22 (n.o.) and a match bag of three wickets.

He was soon drafted into the Sri Lanka one-day squad for the tri-series against West Indies and India where he lived up to his image as a hard-hitting low order batsman and opening bowler.

But since the time the team management took a decision to promote him as a pinch-hitter from the final of the tournament his performances has somewhat suffered. In three innings he has failed to get into double figures.

The question we like to ask is, isn't there anybody else in the batting line up capable of performing the pinch-hitting job? Are we so starved of stroke-makers to fill that role that we are sacrificing the place of a player who has just got into the team?