Confident debutants and pressure domestic cricket needed

by Richard Dwight

Apart from the uncertainty, that looms over the administration of the game of cricket here, there is, as well the growing concern of there being a glaring dearth of up and coming cricketers, with that extra positive approach to forge ahead at the highest level.

Whilst this is true, equally revealing is the fact, that our current cricketers on duty for the country, are in their late twenties, early, and mid thirties, with an exceptionally rare 20 or 21 years old.

No longer do senior cricketers get younger anymore, and as they keep advancing in years, their 'make up' faculties, physical fitness or even the lack of form, in terms of the demands of 'Test Cricket', become highly questionable.

This being so, it does follow that with time, quite a few seasoned campaigners, in the Sri Lanka team, will have to be adequately replaced by a set of enterprising, young cricketers. Those who will not be easily irked by the rigors and pressures of Test Cricket, so as to ensure that the progress of Sri Lanka cricket is maintained. And so the big question is, do we have such a confident crop of talented youngsters, to either emulate or do even better than those they replace.

Lamentably the answer is far from yes and, hasten to reason out, that whilst these aspiring hopefuls are successful cricketers at the local level - they, however aren't so geared to adjust and adapt themselves to cricket played at the test level. For they are found to lack confidence, are very tentative in their approach and more often than not, fail to justify their selection.

The impression given is that they, come what may, need to be pursued with, at the test level for a considerable length of time in order to come to grips with the ordeal of Test Cricket.

But long gestation periods such as this for new comers in the cricket team, is something that Sri Lanka Cricket can ill afford, especially in the context of the highly competitive world of cricket, where winning matters.

So as we dwell on our prospective cricketers who are either on the verge of being selected or yet others striving to re-establish themselves in the Sri Lanka side - our modest observations are that, Gunewardena who bats in the carefree, 'come or go Chicago' style, could get away with weaker opposition but against an astute captain and a clever bowler, could become easy prey.

Kandamby was extremely lucky to get the nod and, only succeeded in embarrassing the selectors, whilst Deniel we feel should move on to convert his thirties into bigger scores, and it is time now that Mubarak shrugs off his "To be or not to be" tentative, hesitant attitude and get on with it, from the word go.

To reiterate that which was stressed earlier, these cricketers aren't mature and lack experience at the highest level of cricket, to pass of as novices against formidable opponents.

Notwithstanding this, it was however heartening to see Russell Arnold, Michael Vandort, Malinga Bandara, Lasith Malinga and Rangana Herath performing well to be seriously reckoned with.

The pity of it all was, that debutant Kalavitigoda failed to impress in the concluded Wellington Test match against the kiwis - which goes to show, that there is a big gap between our sub standard domestic tournament and the demands of International Cricket.

There is undoubtedly, a lack of purposeful debut making cricketers with a zest for impressive contributions, right from the outset of entry.

A situation like this, quite naturally gives rise to the question of indispensability - where well established senior players here, continue in the team for long period of years. This certainly does not augur well, especially in the prevailing highly professional and commercialized environment. It is not healthy and does not count for progress, with the young and future in mind.

Be that as it may, comparatively, new comers to the Australian, South African, Indian and Pakistan cricket teams - do make their presence felt, giving good account of themselves to justify their selection. The reason for this is that aspiring young cricketers from these countries are stretched at their local domestic tournaments in much the same way as they would be stretched, playing in International and one day matches and, so have a feel of the pressure and atmosphere that prevails.

Not so with our tournament here, where the club matches are tame friendly affairs, with a lack lustre provincial cricket thrown in. The authorities must therefore find ways and means to provide these cricketers with a highly competitive, pressurized local tournament, with the clubs getting down a few foreign players if needs be and, consider as well prize money for the winners, runners-up etc. This probably will help the aspiring young to quickly adjust adapt themselves with confidence to the demanding rigors of International cricket.

Oh! for the long over due pleasure of seeing a fresher making it to the Sri Lanka cricket team, go out to the middle and return after awhile, with a debut century against his name - that would be the day.