Bandara should be pitted against the Aussies and Proteas
Richard Dwight
CRICKET: For far too long, spinner Malinga Bandara, though making up
the cricket squad on tour - has had to time and again be content on
being sidelined, cooling his heels in the pavilion, while his colleagues
performed out there in the middle.
This paints a sorry picture indeed, so disheartening to be the sad
side of our cricket. Not to mention the frustration and the demoralizing
effect, that will begin to take hold of him, which in turn will lead
Bandara to forget his bowling and, to commence questioning negatively,
as to whether he is a bowler at all. A part of a wasted exercise in
cricket, at the international level.
Encouragement, support and continuity playing at the highest level,
is what spinner Bandara requires, if he is to realize his potential to
the full as a spinner of the ball.
Bandara bowls with infectious enthusiasm, oozing with confidence,
relishing what he does with a hopeful thrust, in every rhythmic delivery
he sends down.
This apart, he is also a useful batsman and a safe fielder, which
does make him a compact cricketer. Now it might surprise him, if he
quite unexpectedly is selected to play, - which may see him taking time
to settle down to find his rhythm - then the fault would not be his, but
that of the powers that be in not providing him opportunities to play,
especially whenever there is a need for a bowler of his type.
As we dwell on the batsmen of Australia and South Africa, we become
mindful that they have all been nurtured and developed amidst a wide
array of awesome pace bowlers. And so as batsmen, their forte lies
against pace bowlers. They like the ball coming fast and comfortably
score at a rapid rate.
Their weakness however lies in the fronting up to extremely fine
spinners of the ball. They squirm against spin to be hesitant, batting
tentatively to become vulnerable.
And the emerging question is why do we load our team with pace
bowlers against the Aussies, and feed them with what they delight in.
Rather we ought to be pressurising them with a three pronged spin attack
in Murali, Sanath and Bandara with Dilshan chipping in. As for pace Vaas,
Malinga and Maharoof would suffice.
The strategy against the head strong Aussies must be 'attack is the
best form of defence'. We should psyche them before they do it to us.
Create a dent in their confidence, to so frustrate them to make them
desperate against our spinners with the support of specialised
close-in-fielders, and then we would have them on the run.
For this the umpires must be fair, for more often than not, many an
Aussie batsman keep making big scores on a regular basis, because the
umpires have failed to weight the scale evenly, with legitimate appeals
at times being turned down.
We do not profess to be cricket connoisseurs nor pundits of the game,
but as laymen being ardent followers of the game for a considerable
length of time - are led to believe that the talented spinner Bandara
bowling in tandem with Murali could prove quite a handful for the
Australian and South African batsmen. |