Dear Chandi,
First off let me start by offering my most sincere congratulations for the victory in the ODI series. Please pass them on to Sanga and Dilly alright?
I hope you are not feeling that great. I know that sounds rather unkind, but you are our T20 captain, and you did just get beaten at home by the South African lads. I understand that you will probably be greatly disappointed with this, and I just want you to know that you are not alone. A nation is disappointed alongside you. Don’t worry about us though; we’ve been through three World Cup Finals. A meaningless bilateral series will hardly bring out the handkerchiefs. Let us instead talk about you for a bit.
Captaincy is no easy task. The position has been held by giants before you, and no doubt it is all rather tough. No one is swooning over your tactics -as they did with Mahela, or over your eloquence – as they did with Sanga. That is not your fault; you were given the job as an educational experience from what we understand, and four games is hardly enough evidence to use for judgment. (At least two of) Mahela, Sanga and Dilly are there on the field to guide you, and unless the three of them disagree on where to place a fielder, I don’t think your leadership will be tested that much in the near future. I’ll get to that later but first, it is your day job I want to talk about; the one you do with a bat in hand.
The thing is, I’ve had a look at your T20I record, and it’s not very pretty. 18 matches. 211 runs. An average of 13.18. A strike rate of 95. These aren’t the figures of a captain. In fact they aren’t even the figures of an international level top order batsman. They are in a word, dreadful.
I saw an article the other day that you were upset about the big wigs rotating the 3 “seniors” (is that what they call batsmen who actually make runs?) Perhaps you should have realized that if all three were to play, you’d be right up front on the list of people who should be dropped to accommodate them. I know people also scold young Kushal and Lahiru, but neither of them is as bad as you. Kushal’s problem is not scoring enough runs (and generally trying too hard to be like Sanath Jayasuriya). Thirimanne’s fault is that he doesn’t score fast enough. You dear Dinesh, are guilty of both. Look no further than the second game in this series, where 2 runs off 7 balls quite possibly stalled the momentum and lost us the game.
It is hard to know what exactly the problem is. Perhaps you should start by no longer giving catching practice to the slip cordon at training. It’s turning into a bad habit that you’re bringing into games.
Another possibility is that maybe this T20 lark isn’t really your style. In fact, now that I think about it, that’s probably the main reason behind our recent headaches. Everyone was so excited about you being “The youngest ever Sri Lankan captain” that they all looked over the fact that you had only played 14 games and hadn’t really set the world alight. You are a man of many talents, but coming in and smashing the ball out of the park isn’t something you excel in. There’s no shame in that, you are young and you can learn. Even if you don’t, the longer forms of the game still exist for you to make your mark.
What I’m trying to say, Dinesh, is that maybe you shouldn’t be in the T20 team right now. Perhaps someday you will return and smash the ball to all parts of the ground, but right now that’s not happening. With the World Cup coming up next year, we fans would quite like to see the team decide on its best lineup. Sadly, a best eleven that includes you doesn’t seem likely to finally overcome the Finals Jinx.
But it’s not that easy is it? They can’t just drop you because you’re “the captain”. You don’t just drop the captain. Except, you’re not necessarily the best man for the job right now. There are a number of suitable candidates for it. Current Test and ODI skipper Angelo Mathews for one. I know that they thrust the job on you because of “the future”. Maybe you didn’t really want it in the first place. Perhaps being thrown into the deep end has you struggling so much to stay afloat, that you forget about breathing. Maybe; I make no definite judgments.
Is grooming a backup captain really our top priority right now? I would think “finding youngsters to succeed our legends, who are currently carrying the batting by themselves” would be ranked higher on the list. As long as you’re captain, that’s one less spot in which to try someone new. You don’t perform, your captaincy gives you a safety net which could contribute to a lack of motivation, and all the while you’re potentially keeping someone better out of the side.
I think it’s time to agree that the Dinesh, that the selectors have made a mistake. Captaincy shouldn’t have come before you cemented your place in the team. It doesn’t help you, and it isn’t helping the team. People don’t like being wrong, and perhaps it will take them a while longer to realize their mistake. Maybe you should do something about it first. A captain losing his place in the team is a sure fire recipe for stalling careers. I have no desire to see that happen to you. You are a talented guy who has the potential to serve Sri Lankan Cricket for many years. Your career is still in its early days, there will be time for captaincy in the future.
The future is important. But you need to sort out the present first.
Wishing you all the best
