I have seen, heard, read of scintillating performances by a few cricketers in the domestic scene. And yet haven’t seen some of them been given a fair chance to elevate their game to the next level.

Recently the headlines in newspapers read, "De Seram slams twin tons". His last four innings had 3 centuries in domestic cricket. He has been a prospect sometime back and did get a break some years back, but was dumped for good after a very short exposure. In recent years he has been screaming with performances that call for a place in the national team, at least in the ODI’s. But he has been ignored for periods of time. Why, is the question? Not only Indika De Seram, even the likes of Tharanga Paranavithana, Thilina Kandamby and Kaushal Silva have all got very raw deals.

A few explanations we have heard in the past are,

* Domestic cricket is not the same as international cricket.

(Yes it’s not, but performers at domestic cricket are those who deserve to go to the next level. And if the selected few are better than the domestic players who perform, that should show when these international players take part in the domestic competition. That also is not visible)

* Some players are in the 30’s hence not considered

(More than age, what matters is their performance and fitness. What is better for the tour or match in hand, a player who can possibly turn good in the next few years or the one who should best fit the current tour or match)

* Only eleven can be selected to play a game, hence not all can be accommodated

(This is true, but the best possible eleven should make the eleven and not the always selected few, who make the team whether they perform or not)

There will be many other reasons that will be told, but all are nothing but crap to keep certain players (selected few or the favored few) somehow in the team, whilst closing the door on some faces.

Why does this happen? In my opinion, it has to be an organized setup where only a few gets a chance to play for the country and also the cash pot that comes along with it. That’s the only logical answer I can think of. We all know what a lucrative profession cricket is, when you play in the international arena.

Let’s take Indika De Seram as an example. He was in great form and got a mini break to play the Hong Kong sixes and led the team a year or so back. He and his team won the tournament and De Seram himself was impressive, but didn’t even get a break to the Twnety20 team or in the ODI team. Why is that? My assumption is, Hong Kong Sixes does not give the same cash awards or payments compared to Twenty20 or ODI’s and that has to be the reason why De Seram gets the break.

The ones who are selected and favored will always get the break when it comes to playing for the national team in big money events. Isn’t that a fair assumption? If not, how could some of the players in our national side somehow play all the time, even when their performances have been poor or ordinary? In my opinion only players like Sanath(for ODI’s), Mahela, Sangakkara, Murali, Vaas and Ajantha have earned star status as players in the current team. The others need to be treated purely on merit of their current performances, because they haven’t done anything substantial as players to earn a more permanent spot.

However the likes of Dilshan, Mubarak and Upul Tharanga always find a place in any tour or most tours, even when their performances have been ordinary.

Mubarak to an extent has shown some performance of late, but has been someone who has been given a special treatment, which is unexplainable. Dilshan is one of the most experienced middle order bats, who has played loads of cricket but has not matured despite the experience.

Upul Tharanga though reasonably new to the scene also finds his way back very easily, though he doesn’t seem to be performing the way he used to earlier on. To me, this tells that there is a setup that allows only certain players to represent the national team in ODI’s, Twenty20’s and Tests, where the financial rewards are richer by incomparable margins from domestic cricket. Hence the ones like De Serams, Paranavithanas and Kaushals are finding it difficult to get a spot in the team, even when they have been performing superbly.

I could have understood the reasoning for new guys to break in being difficult, if our side was doing very well and also the team comprises of many stars.

We are well below the top level and are hanging in there, thanks to the efforts of mainly Ajantha Mendis and Murali supported in a consistent manner by Sangakkara. We haven’t even been able to knock off the weaker sides like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh with any conviction.

However our team formation in terms of selecting the known faces always, looks as if we have a set of players who are super stars on performance.

Sadly, our batting lineup is very poor in terms of consistency and has been like that for a few years. However, not an effort has been made to look at alternate options from the domestic league. Kandamby broke in recently, but is not given a fair run and did get only one match in Zimbabwe? Unbelievable!!

It is time the selectors and the management of cricket look at putting things right, especially the events that take place before the playing 11 gets onto the field. That is where the bigger problem lies. The wrong set of players walk into the field all the time or make the tour, whilst some deserving domestic level players are shunned out.

Make our cricket a fair playing field for all. My new year wish as a cricket fan.