A coach who does not believe in home advantage

BY SA'ADI Thawfeeq

SUMITHRA Warnakulasuriya, the Sri Lanka under-19 cricket coach does not believe on home advantage. Sri Lanka are hosting the ICC under 19 World Cup for the second time in six years, but Warnakulasuriya is of the belief that home advantage for his team is only marginal.

"We know the conditions. That is the only advantage we have and we are quite comfortable playing at home because we are used to it. Other than that I can't see any other advantage," said Warnakulasuriya assessing his team's chances in the tournament.

"You have to go out there and play and your application is going to be vital under any conditions whether it is at home or away. I believe it is how you play on that particular day," he said.

Warnakulasuriya explained: "Some of the opponents can really make use of the home advantage. The R. Premadasa Stadium wicket tends to seam a little early morning if there is a little bit of grass and moisture.

Some countries having good seamers might make use of the early conditions. If our batters don't bat well they will just run through the top order and we are going to be in trouble. It is the same with a team like India. They might make use of their spinners when the wicket dries up for their own advantage."

Warnakulasuriya was of the opinion that at this level of cricket virtually all countries are very competitive.

"No game is going to be easy. I think it is going to be a very competitive tournament," he said. Sri Lanka's preparations for the tournament actually began with the tour of England in May.

A month before they had made a successful tour to Pakistan, but only three members of that squad are survivors of the present side while they have the full complement of players who went to England.

"We found it difficult adjust to the English conditions. Due to the age difference our boys were at a slight disadvantage. But that tour gave us a lot of experience facing the bowlers in those conditions," said Warnakulasuriya.

"Our top order batters learnt a little bit on that tour. That experience probably helped them to perform better in India and Bangladesh where they reached the finals in both tournaments. They really played well there. They are carrying forward whatever they have learnt."

Fielding lapses

Warnakulasuriya said the reason for Sri Lanka to lose both finals in India and Bangladesh was because of the fielding. "We missed some crucial catches and as a result the matches went the other way."

It was no surprise then to see the team concentrating hard on their fielding ahead of the World Cup. "We paid a lot of attention to our fielding and fitness. Our training sessions were planned out accordingly to give players sufficient time to recover," said Warnakulasuriya.

One other important area which the team concentrated on was getting the players mentally prepared.

"I find these boys are not mentally tough enough to go through pressure situations and things like that. So we got down a sports psychologist Shamila Kodikara," said Warnakulasuriya.

"He addressed them and it has helped them a lot. We are quite happy with the initial outcome. We hope to make use of him time and again."

Sri Lanka's main strength lies in their batting and spin departments. "We have a very good batting line up on paper but it depends on how they perform in the middle."

"These players have tremendous talent and potential. It is just that they lack temperament and application and probably their attitude and approach to the game. Those are the areas where we lack," said 43-year-old Warnakulasuriya who needs no introduction when it comes to batting and wearing out bowlers in the middle.

"Once they get 15-20 runs, they just throw away their wickets. They lack concentration when they get to 20s. They don't really apply themselves."

Lack of commitment

Comparing the players of the same age group in his era in the mid-eighties and today, Warnakulasuriya said: "Today the players are not 100 percent committed. They have other interests and other avenues. They are not playing with the real intention of representing the national team. The commitment is lacking. That is the difference between when I played and today."

Warnakulasuriya was the very epitome of a rock, a right-hander with a solid defence and vast amounts of concentration, which is sadly lacking in not only our junior cricketers but also to some extent in the senior team. He was rather unlucky not to have made it to the national Test team.

Warnakulasuriya also stated that the type of cricket the boys played today had also contributed to their downfall.

"Most of the cricketers from the age of under 13 are playing a lot of one-day cricket. Basically if you are a middle-order batter you hardly get time to bat. By the time you go only a few overs are remaining and the coach will ask you to go for it. So you don't actually know how to build an innings.

That is one of the reasons why we are a little bit behind today. It is the result of playing too much one day cricket," said Warnakulasuriya.

To overcome this inadequacy Warnakulasuriya said: "We are trying to educate them on this lapse and give them a lot of knowledge. Even at batting sessions we try to encourage them to bat without getting out. That is one of the problems we have. If you give them a batting turn for about 15-20 minutes, they will get out at least 10 times."

"What we are trying to do is to play without getting out at the nets so that you will eventually get used to doing the same thing in the match. I remember the time that I played, even at the nets I didn't want to get out. So I took the same attitude to the match," he added.

"The batsmen have been told to tighten up their game and their defence and educated on how to build an innings and things like that. Hopefully it has worked with some players. Fifty overs is a long game and you have time to build an innings, especially the top order batters.

Very often you lose a lot of wickets and at the 40th over you don't have wickets to go for the runs. It has happened to us very often. That is one of the problems we have," he said.