It was a good learning process for the Sri Lankans

Defeat in an international Test series is a hard thing to take with the final reckoning being a 0-1 loss in the Test series and 2-3 loss in the one-dayers. The consensus overall on performance is that our cricketers did well to take the one-day series to the wire and then only lose the final game by a close margin. Altough no excuses can be trotted out, it must be said that had the fickle weather that prevailed here during the tour, and still prevailing been good, the Lankan cricketers would have given a better account of themselves.

Considering that the Lankan team was packed with youngsters, had the weather conditions been fair, they would have obliged. Playing in thermal wear and sporting sweaters was not the style that they are used to.

Its also been a good learning process and our young and budding team will be better off with the experience.

Sky team wanting

One of hallowed principles that TV and Radio commentators try to keep is not to let bias into the equation. In the good old days much fun was made of the bias of Indian commentators who would tie themselves in knots to further the cause of "Mother India"! Now we have the case of the Sky team who carry the Union Jack come what may from the time the Test series began and the one-day series finished what one heard was simply bias.

Other than for former West Indian speed merchant Michael Holding and our own Russell Arnold, the other commentators who are all former England cricketing greats and some of them captains were to say the least disgraceful with their comments. Arnold a former Sri Lanka batting all rounder held his own.

It was all England. If an England bowler got hit, it was a good ball. If a fielder dropped a catch it was difficult one. If a batsman was out it was a reckless shot. Not for once did the home commentators give credit to the Lankans.

Most of the time it was all bias and I know a lot of the viewers were so sick with the descriptions that, most of them would knock off the TV and prefer to listen to BBC Test match special on radio.

Radio commentary

The mediamen were given what was called a radio commentary to be plugged to the ear and listen to either the Sky or BBC Test match special broadcast. It was so sickening listening to the Sky team, that most of the time it was the BBC Test commentary that I preferred to tune into and listen.

The Indian cricket team is due soon and accompanying them will be a brilliant team of commentators in probably Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar and Harsha Bogale. They are masters in this game and they will give as much as they get when opposing the Sky commentary team.

The BBC Test match commentary team had a galaxy of former England greats in Geoffrey Boycott, Chris Martin Jenkins, Phil Tufnell Jonathon Agnew, Michael Vaughan, Alec Stewart, Henry Bloefeld, Vic Marks and our own Roshan Abyesinghe.

They were a wonderful team. They described the action on the field the way they saw it unfolding. They were always fair in their comments to both sides and it was indeed a learning experience listening to them. Boycott was outstanding with his humour, spot on reading of the situations the game was in and never pulled his punches.

Abeysinghe equal

As for Abeysinghe, he was equal to the task, held his own against his more experienced colleagues and was always ready with an answer when Sri Lanka, its cricket, its future or its people were questioned about. He has an easy listening voice and he was well received by listeners here. He did Sri Lanka proud.

In the good old days BBC Test Match Special was a rage in Sri Lanka when it was being broadcast there. There was no TV at that time and cricketers and cricket enthusiasts were glued to their radios and rediffusions soaking in the action that was brought to them.

Those were also the days when the men behind the mike were John Arlott, Brian Johnstone, Trevor Bailey and Fred Trueman names that come to mind who regaled their listeners and made them feel as though they were at the scene of action.

Cricketers and cricket fans were greatly disappointed when BBC Test Match Special stopped broadcasting to Sri Lanka. Talking of BBC Test Match Special, it was also the days when Radio Australia relayed ball by ball commentaries to Sri Lanka. How the commentaries were lapped up. Pity that these commentaries are not relayed to Sri Lanka any more.

End of coach Stuart Law

With no future with Sri Lanka cricket, former Australian batsman Stuart Law, bid adieu and flew out after the final one-day game against England to take charge of Bangladesh cricket. Law was assistant coach to Trevor Bayliss.

With Sri Lanka Cricket not showing any interest in retaining his services, he had no alternative, but to accept the offer that came his way from the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

After the 2011 World Cup and Bayliss quit, Law took over as interim coach, and to his credit it must be said that he did a job to the satisfaction of the cricketers, the administration and all concerned.

When Australian cricket was ruling world cricket their coaches were in big demand. We had a surfeit of them Peter Philpott, Sri Lanka born Dav Whatmore, Bruce Yardley, Tom Moody, Trevor Bayliss and Stuart Law. They accustomed themselves well all round.

WC semis and finals

Whatmore coached them to win the 1995/'96 World Cup while Moody and Bayliss steered us to the 2007 and 2011 World Cup finals. A good record that spoke well of Australian coaches and their ability to turn out champion cricketers and champion teams.

The Australian cricketers led by Michael Clarke will be touring Sri Lanka soon for a Test and one-day series. The Lankan cricketers will be without a coach. But with cricketers of the calibre of Marvan Atapattu (Batting), Champaka Ramanayake (Bowling) and Ruwan Kalpage (Fielding) showing the cricketers how, do we need another coach?

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