Tharjini Sivalingam, Mellony Wijesinghe, Ellilenthini Sethukaavalar, three names Sri Lankan Netball fans would have grown familiar with over the past week.
Three ladies over 6 feet tall, carrying Sri Lanka Netball’s shooting hopes on their shoulders.
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The Sri Lanka Invitational International Netball Tournament, organized by the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka, was held from the 27th to the 30th of May with the participation of the national squads of Sri Lanka and Singapore along with the Sri Lanka Development pool and the PStar Netball club from the UK.
After a hard-fought final showdown between favorites Sri Lanka and Singapore, the hosts came out on top 72-70 to finish the tournament unbeaten. Sri Lanka had an easy road to the final, beating Singapore 65-45 in the tournament opener and then overcoming the Sri Lanka Development Pool (74-24) and PStar Netball Club (97-13), barely breaking a sweat.
The hosts used the games against the latter two teams to experiment a little with their combinations, opting to leave key players like Gayanjali Amarawansa, Gayani Dissanayake, Chathurangi Jayasooriya and Tharjini Sivalingam on the bench for much of the two games.
This was Tharjini Sivalingam’s 1st appearance for Sri Lanka since 2014, when she fell out with administrators and was left out of the team. Since her debut in 2005, to now (even during her break from the sport at a national level from 2014 to 2018), Tharjini has dominated the headlines, Sri Lanka’s one true superstar in Netball.
Standing 6 feet 10 inches tall, it’s fair to say that Tharjini stood out, both literally and figuratively on the court. She led the nation to consecutive Asian Netball Championship finals in 2009, 2012 and 2014, with Sri Lanka emerging victorious in their 2009 campaign.
Tharjini’s crowning glory however, was an individual award bestowed on her during the 2011 Netball World Cup in Singapore. In a championship featuring 16 teams, Sri Lanka finished in 14th place, yet Tharjini was named ‘Best Shooter’, a rare honour for a player whose team did not even make it through the group stage.
If you have watched Sri Lanka play with Tharjini on court, you know it doesn’t take even the most clueless observer long to identify the team’s strategy…. just get the ball to Tharjini in the goal circle.
Tharjini, for her part, has worked on the timing of her jumps and most importantly her accuracy – make no mistake, she is one of the most consistently accurate shooters you will ever see. She hasn’t had to work too much on getting free in the goal circle, as her height gives her a distinct advantage, add to that her reach and the defenders are more or less defenseless.
According to the shooting stats from the recently concluded Invitational International Netball Tournament, Tharjini made 128 of her 133 shots against Singapore (in two games), that’s 96% of all attempts. An incredible number, but not surprising to anyone who has followed her career.
There is however another number that we need to pay attention to. In Sri Lanka’s tournament opener, there were 71 attempts on goal by Sri Lanka, 61 by Tharjini and 10 by Goal Attack Hasitha Mendis. Similarly, in the final, of the 75 attempts in total, 72 belonged to Tharjini.
Just to bring some perspective, in comparison, the Singaporean pair of Charmaine Soh (GA) and Lee Pei Shan (GS), shared the burden almost equally, with Lee taking 54% of the shots as against Soh’s 46%. If you watched the games, you would have seen that they also moved a lot more within the goal circle as opposed to the Sri Lankan shooters. As a result, the Singaporean midfield players had more options, particularly when their shooters were guarded well.
Having watched the games, these numbers don’t come as a surprise. Every member of Sri Lanka’s team who makes it into their attacking half, looks to pass to Tharjini, even the Goal Attack when she has a clear shot at goal.
This does not reflect the ability of Hasitha Mendis, who was most often paired with Tharjini at Goal Attack. In fact, when Tharjini was not on court, Hasitha herself was quite prolific, making most of her shots on goal, albeit not at quite the same level of accuracy as Tharjini. She moved well throughout the court and shot well, particularly from closer to the perimeter of the goal circle.
Keep aside the matter of Tharjini, she has been successful for Sri Lanka and is a good enough player to continue to shine no matter who she comes up against. But what is somewhat disconcerting is the focus the Sri Lankan administration seems to be paying to height when scouting for new players too.
Ellilenthini Sethukavalar and Mellony Wijesinghe are two other Goal Shooters who were on display at the Invitational International tournament, Ellilenthini for Sri Lanka and Wijesinghe for the Sri Lanka Development squad.
Ellilenthini, like Tharjini Sivalingam, is from Jaffna and was unearthed through the Inter Association Netball tournament held a couple of months ago. At 6ft 5 inches tall Ellilenthini was a player the Sri Lankan scouts were desperate to bring down to Colombo. After much convincing, the 23-year-old began training with the national pool and was given a go against the Sri Lanka Development team and the PStar Netball Club, her first outings for Sri Lanka.
Very much in Tharjini’s vein, Ellilenthini too relies on her height and reach. She is less mobile than Tharjini however, and will have to work hard on this if she is to follow her role model’s footsteps, with the Sri Lankan management looking to invest in her (and her height) for the future.
Similarly, 16-year-old Mellony Wijesinghe, who played as Goal Shooter for the Development team is another prospect who has come to the limelight because of her height. She is already 6 feet 3 inches tall and Sri Lanka Netball would hope that she continues to grow for at least a couple more years.
Unlike the Senior team, who are accustomed to lobbing the ball over defenders to Tharjini, Mellony’s teammates had a harder time of it, either overcooking the pass or being intercepted by wary defenders. It was clear that once the option of passing to Mellony was taken out of the equation, the development players were left somewhat flustered.
The number of failed passes to these three ladies would make an interesting stat as there were numerous occasions on which the attempt to get the ball to Tharjini, Ellilenthini or Mellony resulted in turnovers.
This tactic of feeding Tharjini has worked well for Sri Lanka through the years, but are we putting all our eggs in one basket in employing this tactic at our junior levels too? Is the Sri Lankan management making full use of the abilities of the likes of Hasitha Mendis or even Dulangi Wannithilake (who grew up playing at Goal Attack and even led the Sri Lankan junior team to the Asian title in 2015 playing at that position). Is height being prioritized over athletic ability? All pertinent questions for which we may well have answers after the Asian Championship in September.
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Singapore is a smart team, they have had the better of Sri Lanka in the recent past and are sure to devise a plan to counter the Tharjini threat at the Championships come September. At 40, Tharjini is in the twilight of her career, in fact, the Asian Championship may be her curtain call.
How will Sri Lanka deal with her exit? Will they persist with trying to find someone who can match her height and accuracy? It would be good to keep in mind that Tharjini is an extraordinary talent, one you would be hard pressed to see again.
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