We have a new leadership group to the national cricket team and a new era has dawned. Whether this new leadership group will usher in a change of culture within the team remains to be seen. Exciting times are ahead indeed.
Whether three captains for three formats is the right way forward has been debated in many circles. Our cricket is not so rich with brains like Mike Brearley and Tiger Pataudi that we can afford to have a captain for each of the formats. However, the selectors must have had a reason for it and their choice needs to be respected.
Of all three captains Dhananjaya de Silva has been made to wait for too long although ideally he should have taken up the leadership last year as suggested by his predecessor Dimuth Karunaratne.
It was Dimuth’s idea to hand over the reins of the team to his successor ahead of a fresh cycle of the World Test Championship. However, the former selectors had different ideas but never explained them.
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Hasaranga has proved himself in the Lanka Premier League leading his side to the title starring with both bat and ball. His fitness though remains a concern.
Mendis, meanwhile, takes up captaincy of the ODI team being the team’s best batsman. The role did affect him during the World Cup as his form deserted soon after assuming duties as captain.
Zimbabwe of course will not be the biggest challenge for Sri Lanka but the tougher ones are ahead of them as the year progresses.
This year obviously the T-20 World Cup is going to take precedence over all else but don’t forget that crucial points of the World Test Championship are also at stake. Sri Lanka will be playing as many as ten Tests this year. The tour of England in August will be the cynosure of all eyes.
While the white ball players will be focusing on the T-20 World Cup, it is important to keep the red ball players occupied as well. If arrangements can be made for one or two batters to travel to England next summer and engage in County Cricket, that will be a godsend.
Rather than being told to do what is required, if the leadership group can draw up plans to meet the demands of international cricket that will be a huge step forward.
There are issues with the team’s fielding and fitness and rather than things being forced on them, it will be ideal if the players set themselves minimum standards. There’s nothing like self-motivation.
You have already seen good signs when players have asked for good batting tracks for domestic cricket for they have been found wanting when they go overseas, especially at ICC events where wickets are flat and tailormade for batters and high scoring games are the norm of the day.
Batting collapses is another issue that needs to be addressed. Not with just Test cricket but across the other two formats too the team faced many a collapse last year. In the recent World Cup alone Sri Lanka failed to bat out the quota of 50 overs in six of their nine games. That in fact is a crime.
Injuries and injury management has to be looked at seriously because this has been a neglected aspect of Sri Lankan cricket in recent years. Too many players get injured ahead of crucial events and there are problems with their rehabilitation because the same injury keeps cropping up.
The players themselves need to set discipline standards for that was another area that has eroded fast in recent years.
It has been a challenging few years for the sport in the country and while the Asia Cup win in the T-20 format and reaching the finals of the 50 over Asia Cup format was some consolation, the World Cup brought everything back to square one.
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It is very important that the right leader is at the helm for if the leader sets the standards, the rest of the players will fall in line. Some suggest that leaders are born and not made, and it seems the nation is waiting in all eagerness for that leader who will change our cricketing fortunes.
Charith Asalanka indeed looks to be a man who will guide the nation’s cricket fortunes in the right direction, and we may seem him leading the side this year given the amount of cricket that is ahead of us in 2024.
It took one Virat Kohli to change Indian cricket. There is a famous story that he walked into the team’s Colombo hotel gym at 5am to find it closed. He appealed to the hotel management to open the gym at 5 in the morning instead of 6 and since that day hotel’s gym times have changed. Kohli set the benchmark. The run machine he is partly because of the insane work ethic that he has bought into his game. Here’s hoping we get out Kohli, soon!
