Sports
Selectors need to take a look at team culture
There is a difference between taking unpopular decisions and making dumb decisions. Taking the wicketkeeping gloves from Kumar Sangakkara in 2006 in Test match cricket was an unpopular decision.
Backing Sanath Jayasuriya despite having scored one half-century in his first 50 ODIs was another unpopular decision. Handing the vice-captaincy of the national team to Mahela Jayawardene in 1999 sidelining several seniors was yet another unpopular move. The selectors had very good reasoning to make those moves and eventually got the support of the players and the public.
Take the case of current Chairman of Selectors Upul Tharanga. He debuted for Sri Lanka soon after the Under-19 World Cup but didn’t have numbers behind him in domestic cricket to justify his selection. But he was quite a sensation scoring six hundreds in his first year in international cricket. Five of those six hundreds came overseas as well in different conditions like Mohali, Ahmedabad, Christchurch, Lord’s and Headingly. Our cricket has progressed thanks to those men who were prepared to bite the bullet and make those unpopular moves.
Talking of not so clever selection moves, take for instance the call to give the cold shoulder to half a dozen seniors in white ball cricket in 2020 and then when things backfired to blame lack of skill levels among young players.
In the last three years Sri Lanka played three qualifying round tournaments to get though to ICC events and when they finished the recent World Cup ninth and were knocked out of the Champions Trophy the selectors blame poor fitness standards.
They had conveniently forgotten that they had been in charge for three years and had in fact introduced a highly publicized strict fitness regime before ditching it halfway through.
When you introduce policies you need to persevere with them. Sometimes you have to tinker it a bit or even perhaps completely overhaul it depending on circumstances and that’s understandable. But what is not on is using your policies selectively. That is why the national cricket team went from bad to worse in the last three years.
Club loyalties taking precedence over national interests is recipe for disaster and with the previous selection committee it looked an unwritten rule that all national captains had to come from SSC.
Given the amount of cricket that is played it was insane to limit the selection panel for just three members. Authorities need to explain why it was done so. Sanity has prevailed and now the selection panel has been extended to five members.
There is some criticism that most of the current selectors were active First-Class cricketers until recently. That criticism of course has no validity. Being involved in the sport until recently is in fact a good thing for you are aware as to who are the players who deserve a call up. Of course they are aware of the growing demands of the modern game and that’s an additional qualification. A recently retired cricketer is far better than someone who quit the game two decades ago and this certainly is a step in the right direction.
One reason why Sri Lanka has fared poorly in recent years is because there is a serious discipline issue within the team. Your Test captain is charged for drunk driving, and you soft peddle. Your white ball captain had been on bail for a similar offence, and you turn a blind eye. There is a problem with the standards you have set for your cricket team. Or maybe that if you are from SSC everything is forgiven.
The culture within the Sri Lankan team is not good. You should have fun of course but taking things for granted and easy-going is recipe for disaster. If Virat Kohli and David Warner can turn up when training is optional to sharpen their fitness and fielding why not you when you had to qualify for the World Cup. It is baffling indeed.
You find several players coming into the Sri Lankan side with all the right attitudes. But once they have joined ranks with the side they buy into that easy-going culture.
There is so much talk about the skill levels of Sri Lankan players being not all there at present. That maybe true but what is not true is that you don’t need skill levels to become a good fielding unit. You can get there by sheer hard work. This World Cup Sri Lanka dropped 16 catches, that’s almost two catches dropped for a game. In the last two T-20 World Cups, if not for dropped catches the team would have fared much better. The fielding woes need to be addressed at the earliest possible.
The selectors are set to introduce new captains and it seems they will have three captains for three formats. While doing that will keep several senior players happy, not sure whether our cricket is so rich with Mike Brearleys and Tiger Pataudis to warrant captains for each format.
There’s lot of cricket ahead in the new year. The key events will be the T-20 World Cup in the US and West Indies and the tour of England that includes three Test matches.
Given our history of poor injury management in recent times, the selectors have a lot in their plate. Upul Tharanga is known as a fair and unassuming character who sacrificed his own comforts for the sake of team. If he is able to drag the team from the current mess, he will be remembered for a long time to come.
Hosts Sri Lanka made a winning start to their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group IV campaign, edging out Qatar 2-1 in a closely contested opening-day tie at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts in Colombo on Wednesday.
The visitors struck first when Mubarak Alharrasi defeated Sri Lanka’s Apna Perera 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in a hard-fought opening singles encounter, giving Qatar an early 1-0 lead.
Sri Lanka bounced back in the second singles as Thehan Wijemanne produced a spirited comeback to overcome Mossa Alharrasi 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. After dropping the opening set, Wijemanne showed great composure to win the next two sets and level the tie at 1-1.
The decisive doubles match proved to be a tense affair, with Apna Perera returning to partner Saha Kapilasena. The Sri Lankan duo held their nerve in two tie-breaks to defeat Jabar Al Mutawan and Mossa Alharrasi 7-6, 7-6, sealing the tie 2-1 for the hosts.
Sri Lanka’s ability to recover from the opening singles defeat highlighted the team’s resilience as Wijemanne’s comeback victory and the doubles pair’s clutch performance ensured a successful start to their campaign. The hosts will now look to build on the opening-day victory as they continue their quest for promotion in the Asia/Oceania Group IV competition.
MCA PREMIER LEAGUE 2026
A 253 run sixth wicket partnership between Vinuka Rubasinghe [142 runs off 124 balls] and Lahiru Samarakoon [177 runs off 77 balls] set the foundation for David Pieris Group of Companies to amass 411/7 against DFCC Bank in the opening match of the Mercantile Cricket Association’s Premier League Cricket tournament played at the Thurstan Ground on Thursday [23]
Lahiru smashed 18 fours and 13 sixes in his 177 while Vinuka smashed 16 fours and 3 sixes in his 124 ball 142. Nipun Premarathne, Sandaru Wickremarathne and Raveen de Silva captured two wickets each.
In the chase Mihiranga Nimsara and Tharindu Nirmal captured three wickets each to restrict DFCC Bank to 257/8 in their 50 overs. Raveen de Silva top scored with 79 off 103 balls while Pavan Pathirajah chipped in with 65 runs.
SCORES:
David Pieris Group of Companies
411/7in 50 overs [Vinuka Rubasinghe 142, Lahiru Samarakoon 177; Nipun Premarathne 2-67, Sandaru Wickremarathne 2-65, Raveen de Silva 2-79]
DFCC Bank
252/8 in 50 overs [Raveen de Silva 79, Pavan Pathiraja 56 ; Mihiranga Nimsara 3-57 , Tharindu Nirmal 3-35]
Reeza Hendricks scored his second fifty of the tournament and took his team over the line without getting dismissed for the second time as Dambulla Sixers defeated Galle Gallants at their home, Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, in the eighth match of the Lanka Premier League.
Hendricks came into bat at number three in the third over after Niroshan Dickwella departed and soon saw the back of Sahibzada Farhan as well. He then stitched a quickfire 36-run stand with Pavan Rathnayake and then took the game away in a 69-run stand with Marques Ackerman.
Rathnayake took the attack to the impact sub Eshan Malinga in the last over of the powerplay. Before that, he had a single six in his LPL career in 7 innings; then he deposited three maximums in a single over against Malinga, ending the powerplay at 70/3, as he departed for a 11-ball 29 on the last ball.
Hendricks, joined by his countryman, Ackerman, took the team’s total to 102/3 inside 10 overs, as the latter hit a massive six against Akif Javed in the 10th over to cross the 100-run mark.
The flow of boundaries continued as Hendricks and Ackerman continued with massive sixes from both batters in back-to-back overs against Malinga and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, leaving the equation required to 54 runs off 48 balls.
Ackerman was finally dismissed as Karunaratne showed up with the ball in hand as well, breaking the 69-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Hendricks still did not stop as he reached his second half-century of the season off just 30 deliveries.
The new batter Gulbadin Naib hit a couple of straight maximums against Mohammad Nawaz, ending the expensive over which had already seen Hendricks start with back-to-back boundaries, leaving just 16 runs off the last five overs, which also kickstarted Dambulla Sixers’ power blast as well.
Gulbadin hit 3 maximums in his six-ball cameo to finish the game in style with 23 balls remaining, chasing down the target set by Galle Gallants with ease.
At the start of the match, Galle Gallants’ Sam Harper (40 off 22 balls including 3 sixes and 3 fours) and Charith Asalanka (25 off 19 balls; 2 fours, 1 six) started well after losing Lasith Croospulle in the third over to Vishwa Lahiru. The duo gathered 64 runs off 37 balls for the second-wicket.
Chamika Karunaratne rescued the innings after Harper was bowled by Gulbadin Naib in the ninth over and Asalanka was caught and bowled by Ackerman.
While wickets fell on the other end, skipper Dasun Shanaka came and arrested the collapse with a cameo. Later he made full use of the power blast’s first over, scoring 15 runs before Farooqi came back with a double-wicket over, dismissing Karunaratne for 45 runs off 30 deliveries and Mohammad Nawaz for two.
Shanaka chipped in with 20 runs off 10 balls, while Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s 16 runs off 13 balls took Gallants’ total to 178/8 in 20 overs.
Brief Scores
Dambulla Sixers
won by 6 wickets with 23 balls to spare
Galle Gallants:
178/8 in 20 overs [Chamika Karunaratne: 45 (30), Sam Harper: 40 (22), Fazalhaq Farooqi: 3/39 (4) Marques Ackerman: 2/27 (3)]
Dambulla Sixers:
180/4 in 16.1 overs [Reeza Hendricks: 64* (37), Marques Ackerman: 35 (25)
Pavan Rathnayake:
29 (11), Chamika Karunaratne: 1/7 (1), Dasun Shanaka: 1/18 (2)]
Child abuse crisis: 108,000 complaints reported in 10 years
CA dismisses writ petition seeking postponement of A/L exam
Bimal’s remarks on MP’s conduct spark heated exchange in Parliament
SC rules fundamental rights of Aragalaya activist were violated
TRINEX-26 naval exercise begins off Trincomalee coast
Court defers hearing of GR’s Easter Sunday petition
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
Features5 days agoTwo memorable excerpts from a former SLAF commander’s memoir
-
Business5 days ago‘Giving up was never an option’: The fisherman who fought back after losing millions in SL
-
Latest News6 days agoDavis cup Asia/Oceania Group IV 2026 to be held in Colombo from 20th to 25th July
-
Features5 days agoErdoğan’s New Republic
-
Life style5 days agoTaste of the Swiss Alps comes to Colombo
-
News6 days agoEvidence recorded in money laundering case against Yoshitha Rajapaksa
-
Midweek Review2 days agoThree high-profile alleged suicides shaping key investigations
-
News6 days agoDengue outbreak gallops ahead: Infections surpasses 73,455, leaving 50 dead