Surprise selections and disastrous Asiad

For Asian Games:

Dilanka MANNAKKARA

With much intensified hopes and expectations, a 103 strong Sri Lankan delegation flew to Guangzhou to take part in the 16th Asian Games on the 11th of November. The same number returned to the island with shattered hopes and neither a single medal nor record breaking performances, in their respective events. The Sri Lankan delegation which took part in the Asian Games with 44 other Asian countries is wedged into this 'sorry' situation, perhaps acting as an eye-opener for the Sport Authorities in the island nation.

The cricket team which was filled with ex-national players, Hong Kong sixes players, Wayamba players and so called T20 specialists fared miserably and barely managed to win against minnows Nepal who had 8 Under 19 players in the team. The team lost against a third string Pakistan team and a young Bangladesh team thus painting a sorry picture about Sri Lankan cricket.

Cricket had our best chance to easily grab a gold but the Lankan selectors who picked the ageing out of form old horses paid the price for relying on big names and past heroics rather than on present form and consistency.

Poor team selection and not providing chances for deserving players was the reason for Lanka's downfall.

Big hopes for cricket

Cricket was a part of the Asian games after 12 long years and due to India not participating and Bangladesh and Pakistan sending their second string sides the Sri Lankan side which was filled with Hong Kong Sixes players and members from the star studded Wayamba side was expected to win a gold medal without difficulty. In fact the mild mannered Captain of the side Jehan Mubarak was interviewed by this correspondent and he was pretty confident of his side's chances. After failing in our traditional strong hold athletics, weight lifting and boxing the entire nation's hopes were rested on the shoulders of the experienced cricket team to make a clean sweep and win the gold.

The pathetic display against Nepal

The print and electronic media gave the limelight to the cricket team and with 8 internationals in the squad the whole nation was glued to the tv screens to watch the game which they are so passionate about. The draw was in favour of Sri Lanka as their first game which was a virtual Quarter Final against the babes of cricket Nepal.

It was a scenario of Gulliver facing the Lilliputs as the Nepalese side was shot out for 72 runs with surprisingly Skipper Mubarak who is known for his batting being the pick of the bowlers.

Sri Lanka were on course for an easy victory and then it was an unbelievable collapse for the Lankans as the much hyped batting order including the likes of Skipper Mubarak, young Kusal Perera, Sri Lanka T20 player Chinthaka Jayasinghe and the extremely experienced Indika de Saram fell like a pack of cards.

It was so disappointing to see these very experienced campaigners struggling against an inexperienced, extremely average bowling attack by gifting their wickets playing some horrible shots.

Especially Skipper Mubarak would have been very annoyed with himself after hitting an upper cut straight to the hands of the Third man fielder. Chinthaka Jayasinghe made a school boy error by coming down the track to a delivery which turned away from him thus giving the keeper stumping practice.

In a surprising move the team management sent Malinga Bandara to hammer a few in spite of having a genuine big hitter in the line up Dilhara Lokuhettige.

The move turned out to be a disaster as Bandara lasted only five balls and Lokuhetti who came in next tried to be aggressive and reverse the pressure by hitting a six but after his departure Sri Lanka were tottering at 56 for 8.

The Nepalese were sensing a miraculous win and even their coach Roy Dias who was also one of the most elegant Lankan batsmen coud not believe it. Drama continued as Spinner Sajeewa Weerakoon turned out to be Lanka's unlikely hero and he together with Kaushalya Lokuarachchi pulled Sri Lanka from the jaws of defeat.

Thrashed by a young Bangladesh team

Sri Lanka's woes continued in the all important Semi Final as the Bangladesh side which was led by the diminutive Ashraful thrashed Sri Lanka by 5 wickets with almost 5 overs to spare. The selectors pulled of another surprise move by opening the batting with ex Lankan seamer Nuwan Zoysa who didn't look a shadow of his former self despite having the explosive opener Dilshan Munaweera in the squad. The move turned out to be another debacle for Sri Lanka as Zoysa departed after hitting two fours. Then it was the usual collapse again as Indika de Saram, Mubarak, Kusal Perera failed once again while sending in destructive top order player Thilakarathne Sampath at an unusual No 6 turned out to be another wrong decision as he lasted only 5 balls.

The Lankan batsmen showed poor technique against the bowling of Shuvo who finished with excellent figures of 4 wickets for just 6 runs.

Sri Lanka were stranded on 83 for 9 and Chinthaka Jayasinghe tried his best to resurrect the innings with Isuru Udana but Sri Lanka only managed to finish with a paltry 101 in 20 Overs. The Bangladeshis cruised to victory by hammering the likes of Bandara, and Isuru Udana thus proving the fact that you need genuine strike bowlers to win a match.

Missing out on the Bronze as well

After being thrashed by a young and a methodical Bangladesh side the least that the Lankans could have done to save their grace was to grab the Bronze medal. But they were crushed by an improved Pakistan side that contained only one international player in Khalid Latif who smashed the Lankan bowlers to all corners of the ground.

At last dangerous opener Dilshan Munaweera was given a match but he was drop down to number five in the batting order as make shift opener Nuwan Zoysa was given another go at the top. Kulathunga, Zoysa and Munaweera were the only ones to get in to double figures as the rest of the 'strong batting line up' consistently failed for the third consecutive time.

However Sri Lanka managed to notch up 135 which was their highest score of the tournament but Pakistan raced towards victory with six wickets to spare.

Selection blunders and dilemmas

The selectors seemed to have followed a different route by picking a band of ageing ex- national players instead of picking up promising,in form youngsters who are on the verge of breaking in to the national team which selectors from Bangladesh,Pakistan and even minnows like Nepal and Afghanistan did.

A fine example for this is picking the likes of Nuwan Zoysa who is most probably not going to make a come back to the national team. Zoysa wasn't in the best of form even in the Provincial T20 tournament as well and persisting with him at the top didn't do any justice to regular inform young openers like Munaweera and Sampath who were part of the squad.

Hard hitting batsman Indika de Saram didn't have a good tournament as well as Kaushalya Weerarathne who looked very ordinary in the Provincial tournament and persisting with them through out didn't help the cause of the team. In another surprising move fast bowling all rounder Dilhara Lokuhetti was dropped for the rest of the matches after quite a good all round performance in the first match against Nepal.

Players like Gayan Wijekoon and Sajeewa Weerakoon were drafted in to the squad out of nowhere and they must consider themselves lucky to be in the team while fine young players like Thirimanna, Bhanuka Rajapaksha, Chathura Peiris, Kithruwan Withanage were not even considered. Especially Skipper Mubarak had a disastrous tournament as he failed in all three games with the bat.

Omission of Senanayake and Gunarathne

It was astonishing not to see spin sensation Sachithra Senanayake who was the best bowler of the Provincial T20 tournament not part of the team. Senanayake who is in top form right now would have been the ideal strike bowler for Sri Lanka who lacked a lot of zip in the attack. Another surprise omission was of prolific all rounder Janaka Gunarathne who has been the revelation with both bat and ball this season. Gunarathne who won the Player of the tournament award in the Provincial tournament is the ideal player which a T20 team needs as his intelligent off breaks and gutsy stroke play adds a lot of value to the team.

Going without a genuine pace bowler

To win a match you must have wicket taking bowlers and genuine quick bowlers upfront gives the Captain the attacking option. The 15 man squad didn't have a single fast bowler who could bowl in excess of 130 kilo meters per hour and trouble the batsmen. Ideally the selectors should have included young pacies like Nuwan Pradeep, Shaminda Eranga and Vidanapathirana in the space of these 'half bowlers'.

The likes of Nuwan Pradeep, Shaminda Eranga would have given skipper Mubarak the option of striking upfront and instead he had to rely on his out of form spin bowlers to open the bowling and the likes of Zoysa, Weerarathne and Udana who bowl at the 120 range to provide the breakthroughs.

These illogical selections and surprise decisions by the selectors was one of the prime reasons of failure by the Lankan team who looked very strong on paper but got humiliated all around.

Perhaps the authorities should learn from countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan on how to select a proper team and to reward deserving players for these kind of tournaments and if not the likes of the improving Afghanistan and Nepal would beat us in the very near future.

[ Cricket at Asian Games]

The team sport of Cricket become a medal sport at the 2010 Asian Games. The last time cricket featured in a major multi-sport event was at the 1998 Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The gold medal was won on that occasion by South Africa, who defeated Australia by 4 wickets in the final with New Zealand winning the bronze medal.

Asian cricketing powerhouses India and Pakistan have been the drivers behind the inclusion of cricket in the Asian Games.

The Test nations in the Asian Cricket Council, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka competed with the initial plan that the Associate teams such as Hong Kong would also be invited to play in the inaugural competition. China compete as the host nation which serves as a boost for the Chinese Cricket Association which has boldly stated its ambition of China becoming a force in one-day cricket by the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

Medalists

Gold : Bangladesh

Silver : Afghanistan

Bronze : Pakistan

Nations competed: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, Nepal, Maldives, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia