Sri Lanka Cricket was given a discourteous shock on Thursday night when they were crushed to their heaviest conquering at home in One Day International cricket in the fourth ODI of the bilateral series against India at R. Premadasa Stadium. At this Island’s most iconic cricket ground which conventionally the usual spectacle with a capacity crowd that turns up to watch the national team playing was not seen with more than half the stadium been bare. This sight was never seen when hosts were playing India before.The stupid administrators at the SLC had however had sought stringent security guidelines by deploying a special police contingent also to avoid a repetition of anticipated dilemma that took place in Pallekelle the other night. The declining of spectator curiosity at this venue does not augur well at all for our cricket and for our passionate cricket enthusiasts.
It is significant to mention that even the average cricket follower would not have been convinced with the composition of the team. The tail was obviously too long with the novice Hasaranga in at number 7 could not (wag) wave to and fro. Unlike India our tailenders could hardly hold a bat. Surely the selection committee would have strengthened the batting by including Dhanushka Gunatilleke and Dhananjaya de Silva, both who could also bowl. The selectors should have thought of playing all rounders like Milinda Siriwardena in all previous games.This is food for superlative thought for our selection committee who have already submitted their resignation.
Another blunder was for not including players of the calibre of Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dasun Chanaka, Seekkuge Prasanna and others who had performed well at the domestic level in the original squad. It is pertinent to mention despite the weak and toothless bowling attack, constantly failing batting line up our fielding was atrocious letting down a number of simplest of catches.
In the context of the above it is pertinent to have complete revamp in our cricket structure which has been highlighted as having “too many cooks” with a view to bring back our passionate cricket fanatics to our cricket stadiums to watch our most popular sport by diagnosing the cause for the catastrophe instead of letting it to die.
- Sunil Thenabadu