by Rex Clementine

The lifespan of a fly is said to be four weeks, apparently a Sri Lankan cricket captain has a shorter lifespan than a fly.

Gone are the days where Arjuna Ranatunga ran the side with an iron-fist for a decade and built  an empire as good as Clive Lloyds’ West Indies of 1970s and Stephen Waugh’s Australians of 1990s. People can say that Arjuna was a different beast but then, his successor Sanath Jayasuriya held fort for four years; won and built up a team for the future. Marvan Atapattu, who succeeded him should have skippered the side for a considerable time too but that was a time when cricket’s power base was shifting from Maitland Place to Perera Gardens.

Kusal Janith Perera’s appointment as captain of Sri Lanka’s white ball team in May took many by surprise. The selectors had been bold to axe as many as six seniors from the white ball team but for the same selectors to say that they opted for KJP because he is the only guy who was sure of a place was amateurish and impulsive. Surely, they didn’t take a leaf out of Haroon Lorgat, one of South Africa’s best chief selectors.  

When South Africa crashed out of the 2003 World Cup in the first round, Lorgat axed Shaun Pollock, one of the nicest guys you will come across in cricket. Now Lorgat didn’t say, ‘Let me give the captaincy to Jacques Kallis because he is someone who is sure of his place.’ He also didn’t turn to Mark Boucher or Garry Kirsten, other blokes who were sure of their places. Instead, he appointed a 23-year-old rookie by the name of Graeme Smith and the rest as they say is history.

Maybe making these tough decisions should be left for men who are made of sterner stuff like Michael Tissera, Duleep Mendis, Sidath Wettimuny or Ashantha de Mel.

It was a foregone conclusion that KJP was on borrowed time. He promised to play a fearless brand of cricket but failed to walk the talk. Maybe people expected too much from a lad who hadn’t even captained Royal.

There is no denying of the fact that KJP is a courageous guy. He played the last game in Bristol carrying a shoulder injury. On his return home, just before he went to Nawaloka to get a pain killer injection; he was called up by Head Coach Mickey Arthur to be informed that he has been sacked. The people who appointed him only phoned later to say that he’s got too much on his plate. They can say that the team is in a bubble and outside interaction is minimal. But here’s an interesting one. Dimuth Karunaratne hasn’t been told up to now why he was sacked as skipper. That’s not cricket.

All in all, Dasun Shanaka has been someone who has been groomed for captaincy.

When seniors got cold feet and refused to tour Pakistan in 2019, it is Shanaka who skippered the side and won a series against a team ranked number one at that point. But since then for some reason Shanaka has been overlooked. Surely, he must have been made deputy to KJP. That sums up the story as to how clueless decision makers are. No wonder cricket is in a mess. Spare a thought to Shanaka. Poor bloke now has five days to get the team together and play a series.

There are concerns that Dasun is not sure of his place in the ODI side. That should be the least concern for we are running out of leaders. At this rate, we might have to bring T.M. Dilshan out of retirement.