Sri Lanka coach Mr. Chandika Hathurusinha must be taken to task for the way the team has been performing over the past six months starting with the humiliation of been kicked out of the Asia Cup by losing to Bangladesh and Afghanistan followed by ODI and Test series defeats against England and New Zealand.
It has been reported all over the media that Mr. Hathurusinha is being paid a whopping sum of Rs. 7.5 million for a month and this must be the highest amount paid by Sri Lanka Cricket to any coach even the many foreigners who have coached the team.
It is well remembered that Sri Lanka sacked coach Jeff Marsh after just three months over a debacle in only one series and that Mr. Hathurusinha has not been held accountable for so many defeats raises many questions for us Sri Lankans.
Mr. Hathurusinha gave all of us Sri Lankans the belief that only he could have lifted the fortunes of the Sri Lanka team but instead what is happening is the other way around.
Sad to say Sri Lanka Cricket fell for Hathurusinha like most of us Sri Lankans who were made to believe he had the remedy for the team.
Mr. Hathurusinha is not a coach who came to Sri Lanka looking for a job like the others before him. Sri Lanka targetted him and he targetted Sri Lanka and that gives more reason to the call that he should be held accountable.
I don’t think Sri Lanka Cricket had really given thought to building up a team for the 2019 World Cup in England and now all panic has set in without a proper team to field in the tournament that comes once in four years.
Only four of the 10 teams in the World Cup can qualify for the semi finals and already the experts are predicting that England, India, New Zealand and South Africa are tipped to fill the four slots.
It means that Sri Lanka will have to first beat teams like the West Indies, Pakistan, Australia and Bangladesh before taking on the four teams that will qualify for the World Cup semi finals.
In 1999 Sri Lanka went to England with the same team that won the 1996 World Cup and could not even qualify for the second round.
I wonder how Sri Lanka can qualify by playing against all the top teams in the 2019 World Cup. Sri Lanka better forget the 2019 World Cup and at least now prepare for the 2023 World Cup.
SM Samarasinghe
Nugegoda