by Rex Clementine
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly prior to the final of the Coca-Cola Cup tournament against a Sri Lankan team sans Aravinda de Silva in Colombo last year told reporters, "If you get Sanath Jayasuriya early, Sri Lanka can be dismissed for a law score. Their middle order is fragile". And over a period of time Ganguly has been proved right. If one analyses Sri Lanka’s performance in limited overs cricket during the last two years or so, the side has always struggled if Jayasuriya goes early. The team will do well if they have the experience of Aravinda de Silva in the middle order. But one wonders how effective he’ll be as late as number six. Push him up the order to bat at number four where he has made most of his eight and half thousand runs and he’ll do well.

The National Selection Committee did well to recall Sri Lanka’s most prolific run scorer in both tests and one Dayers for the shorter version of the game. But all this talk about him batting down as late as number six might not pay off. In Sri Lanka’s first match of the Morocco Cup, Aravinda came to bat as late as number seven, but was left with very few overs to help Sri Lanka’s cause. But on the next day against South Africa, he batted at number four and rose up to the occasion with a match winning innings.

The number four position in any team is a key spot. The teams probably play their best players in that position. The Indians have maestro Sachin Tendulkar, the Caribbean’s star batsman Brian Lara and the Pakistanis the strong Inzamam Ul Haq. Mahela Jayawardene another fine player has batted for Sri Lanka in that position in recent years. Although Jayawardene did well with the bat last year, this year he has struggled to come to terms in one dayers. Both Jayawardene and Aravinda (who is 12 years older than Jayawardene) are complete players. The difference between the two is the inconsistency in the youngster and the vast experience of the veteran. Jayawardene tends to throw away his wicket when the side needs him most while Aravinda’s experience has taught him to finish off things when set. That’s what he did against the South Africans.

Aravinda has the ability to work the ball around and frustrate the opposition. He’s very good at being involved in large partnerships and the younger players could learn quite a lot from him. The ideal position for a player like him is number four.

The 2003 World Cup is only six months away and Sri Lanka needs to get into correct groove quickly. Russell Arnold who used to bat at the crucial number six position did brilliantly coming up with match winning knocks. It’ll be profitable to revert back to the old formula of batting the NCC left-hander at number six. Mahela could bat at number five, only if the selectors are confident that Kumar Sangakkara is the ideal number three. If they think otherwise, Jayawardene can move up to number three with Sangakkara dropping to number five.

It’s a pity that Aravinda has received a raw deal during the last three years. The ploy of playing some of the younger cricketers, whom the selectors felt would do better than the experienced players has failed to a certain extent and that has resulted in the recall of Aravinda. His critics have said that he’s too slow in the field pointing out at his sloppy fielding and the poor running between wickets. But the important point is that he has made an effort to improve the aspects of his game at the age of 36 and should be given all support. Aravinda has something more to give to Sri Lankan cricket and the team management and selectors would do well if they use him properly.

It’ll be appropriate to finish off this column with the words of Ganguly spoken before the Coca-Cola Cup final, "During Sri Lanka’s period of success, they had two match-winners, one was Aravinda, the other Jayasuriya. But today only one of them is around,"