Letter

When there occurs an early elimination from a competition, as was the case with Sri Lanka in the Champions Trophy tournament, it is normal for fans to be disgusted and disgruntled.

What’s hard to fathom is the early exit despite the form Sri Lanka was in and some even compared it to the 1996 World Cup form. To be fair by the team though, we were confronted by one of the best ever One-Day bowling attacks; the Pollock and Ntini combination who aptly demonstrated their effectiveness a few days later against a hapless Pakistan team, another pre-tournament favourite.

The Sri Lankans, despite this loss are on the rise with the skipper leading from the front; he is a good on-field strategist and an explosive top order batsman. He has flexibility in bowling options and a side that overall fields better apart from the occasional blip.

However, there is a weak link in the side. The top order will not fire all the time and that’s a reality we have to face. Then it’s time for the middle order to take over and stabilize and get the team back into the game. This is where our weak link is. This has been a long-term problem and since of late, due to the good form of the top order, the middle order was not exposed.

That’s why I feel that Sri Lanka should have opted for the luxury of having seven batsmen and should have played Chamara Kapugedara.

Part of Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup success was due to the strength in the middle order. If the present team is to emulate the efforts of the heroes of 1996, the middle order needs to be more stable and consistent.

Young players like Chamara Kapugedara should be granted exposure. He needs fine tuning, no doubt. Yet such would not happen if not given enough opportunities. We saw A. B. de Villiers, a 22-year-old come up with impressive performances in the tournament. Against Sri Lanka, he partnered Kallis to enable South Africa to put up a competitive score.

Shifting from our strategy of the 7-4 combination was a blunder. Twenty overs of power play has necessitated at least three seamers, thus reducing the spin option to one bowler. We have to ask the question; do we really need four seamers though, when three seamers could easily manage the power plays. Having four seamers and getting two of them to bowl only 5 overs each (Maharoof and Dilhara) at the expense of an additional batsman was a waste of resources.

Power plays, leg side wides and batsmen friendly pitches are all in favour of batsmen and high scoring games in ODIs. Sri Lanka, with its natural flair could benefit more from the 7-4 strategy in One Day cricket, while selecting five bowlers for Test match cricket only.

Another would be to think outside the box and have two seamers and two specialist spinners and bowl a spinner during the power play overs.

Back in the 90s, New Zeeland adopted an innovative strategy of introducing Deepak Patel within the first 15 overs and caught the opposition off-guard. It’s unfortunate that promising leg-spinner Malinga Bandara didn’t get at least one game and this was after a good VB series in Australia early this year in trying circumstances, and good performances in England.

When bowling, SL is known to strangle the opposition in the middle overs using spinners. This was less apparent in the last tournament; partly due to lack of adequate spin bowlers apart from Jayasuriya and Murali. It’s time to get back to what has worked well for us, all these years.

Looking ahead to the future, SL has a challenging tour of New Zealand. It will be early summer in the southern hemisphere and traditionally, the ball will swing a great deal and all the technical skills of our batsmen will be fully tested, with the NZ slip cordon gleefully waiting to profit from any deficiencies. The absence of any big names in the Kiwi team creates a tendency for them to come from behind and surprise the opposition with a good team effort.

All in all, fans hope our tour of New Zeeland will not hinder our rise and that the team would show great mental resolve and play fighting cricket. Remember, attitude is everything and aptitude is miniscule.