Women cricketers to make an impact

Chris Dhambarage

The newly appointed coach of the Sri Lanka women’s cricket team Harsha de Silva was confident that they could make an impact at the upcoming ICC Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies.

The 38 year old former St. Joseph’s and Colts CC cricketer noted that they are moving in the right direction and are hoping to improve on their ICC team rankings following a disappointing tour of Australia.

De Silva said that the team has made steady progress under him during the last two weeks and are set to play a couple of warm up matches against the West Indies prior to the Twenty20 World Cup.

Following are the excerpts from the interview.

Q: What made you switch from men’s cricket to women’s cricket?

A: Well, I thought this was a step up for me. It is a national appointment and I thought I can do something good here with the national women’s team.

Q: What are your early plans to improve women’s cricket in Sri Lanka?

A: Leading upto the last World Cup we have not played that well and we are ranked number eight in the ICC World Rankings. So my job will be to see that we come up the ranks in the next two years.

Q: Are you pleased with the progress the Sri Lanka women’s team has made in the recent past?

A: Actually they are better than what I thought there standard was and I am very happy with the progress they have made in the last two weeks under me.

Q: What preparations have you made for the Twenty20 World Cup?

A: The Twenty20 World Cup is to be held in the West Indies starting on the 30th of April and going upto 16th of May.

So we will be going to the West Indies two weeks prior that’s on the 14th to play two one day matches plus three Twenty20 matches against the West Indies women’s team. These are like warm up practice matches leading upto the World Cup. So my task at the moment is to prepare the girls for the Twenty20 World Cup. Most of the sessions that we are doing are based on developing their Twenty20 skills.

Q: How do you fancy Sri Lanka’s chances at the Twenty20 World Cup?

A: Obviously there is room for improvement. They are not a bad lot. There is lot of talent in the team. And I am very confident of doing well in the World Cup.

Q: Do you think women’s cricket is heading in the right direction?

A: Definitely Sri Lanka women’s cricket is in the right path way. They have just started a District tournament with tape ball. And they are going to have a Provincial tournament at the Welagedera Stadium on 23 and 24 of this month.

That will be played with tape ball. But they are trying to introduce the hard ball next season.

So that is a step in the right direction I would say. There is no proper structure a path way for the ladies to come up to the national level.

There is only a handful of clubs who are taking part in the domestic tournament. So it is important that we promote the game and bring it up at least to where the men’s standard is.

Q: What are the other areas that you will be concentrating to develop the game?

A: I will be looking at developing the game at school level. And even club level. There is only few clubs who are taking part. But I am sure if Sri Lanka Cricket can promote women’s cricket at club level definitely we will have better players coming through.

Q: How do you hope to reduce the gap between the Asian region and other countries like Australia, England and New Zealand?

A: For one thing it is the culture. I mean the culture is quite different the Western and the Asian culture. So we need to break that. And to do that we need to put the structures, path ways for the players to come up.

Q: What will be the strength of the Sri Lankan team for the Twenty20 World Cup?

A: As it is we are ranked number eight in the World. But we must admit the fact that we did not have six of the regulars at the last World Cup in Australia.

So those six players who hopefully will make it to the squad on performances and form will make a big difference in our playing standards. There is a squad of 30 players. And we just brought it down to 20 last week. So end of the week we would know the 14 member squad and the four stand byes. We of course have a deadline to meet with the ICC.

Q: Do you think Twenty20 cricket is more suitable for women than the 50 over format?

A: I mean there are two things for it. Probably because it is a shorter game I think the ladies fancied it more.

The amount of work and the hours that you need to put in is less. But I think the 50 over game is also a very important thing because there is a 50 over World Cup for women. So we have to be very good on both forms.