Does May 26, 1999 and that cute Taunton venue Priory Road, cause any embarrassing reminders? If not, it should.

And while Yahaluweni, you mull over that taunting Taunton memory riddle, what about the local television station Channel Eye and their big howler? Or, how to miss a defining moment in the game’s limited overs history because of the need to get in an extra hair shampoo advert? Remember that moment do we? Some of us certainly do. It became an interesting discussion point.

There we were, seated on the edge of our hospital beds and wondering why it was such a long advert break, when suddenly the screen filled with Muttiah Muralitharan being swamped by royal blue shirted teammates and congratulated. What had gone moments before was a mystery to Sri Lanka’s viewers, but in the rest of Asia, it is said, they certainly knew.

No apology was issued (not even the old standby of technical failure). This was followed by a series of replays of Gautam Gambhir’s angled cut attempt that ensured the viewers were given a chance to enjoy the moment of Kumar Sangakkara smartly taking the edge.

Naturally, before the next batsman made his appearance, Channel Eye grovelled yet again to the plastic neon dollar signs and showed another ad before focusing on the game. That is Channel Eye for you: big on promises and nothing when it comes to professionalism. What can you expect?

Then again, those in India controlling transmission of the England/West Indies Tests in the Caribbean also on Sunday committed a similar gaffe. Dwayne Smith caught a wobbly-looking Alistair Cook in the slips off Jerome Taylor’s bowling. But because of an overflow advert of some advert over a mobile service provider, the lost moment of the catch followed seconds later. Oh well, it is only West Indies against England, what is the difference?

As for Channel Eye, when some guy did show his face on the screen to tell us his version of events, the sycophantic smile explained the typical view of blithely brushing aside the incident. To the doctor watching the catch event with me, he was embarrassed. How could they pretend nothing had happened?

It reminded me of an incident that also involved India in the Bloemfontein Test of 2001 on that fractious tour. The production team messed up on the run out replay of Jacques Kallis, when it was called for with the monitors fabricating stories that had no relevance to the incident involved. The Television umpire on that occasion, Rudi Koertzen was looking at a blank screen and when the so-called run out ‘incident’ was displayed for a line decision, to his horror, he was shown the wrong pictures a minute later.

Poor camera work, which has been a de rigueur feature of this Wealthsurance Cup series, may have cost Sri Lanka an important breakthrough in the 14th over of India’s innings last Thursday. You may, or may not recall the incident: 13.3 overs and Mahendra Singh Dhoni edges Farveez Maharoof to Sangakkara with the score 73 for one.

What happened next was as slapstick as anything you could find. Replays indicated that the ball may have carried. It showed too the level of the playing square is higher than imagined and the focus of the incident was anything but clear; that the side on view was as sloppy and despite several playbacks, nothing was conclusive for the umpire to judge whether it was a fair catch.

It suggests there is serious incompetence involved. Technology, it is argued, is supposed to enhance the chances of giving a fair decision, but the Nimbus TV producer made an inept mess of something so simple as this particular incident is suggests something else. The producer didn’t want to give a clear picture of such events as this Dhoni catch.

This has, of course, been overlooked as India have batted their way to success in the series and Sri Lanka are starting to look a third rate bowling side by comparison. Also, patchy batting from the junior members of the side doesn’t make for good reading.

Selection panel head Ashantha de Mel has made several valid points: one is about strike rotation the other day when asked for his opinion of where the team was failing. The undefeated Kandamby innings at Premadasa is an example of carelessness in strike rotation. If you take the innings of Gambhir when scoring his 150, there were as many as 44 singles in that score.

Also, the accusation of poor fielding levels is one that cannot be ignored. Instead of a continuation of the Trevor Penney ethic of improved fielding skills, the decision to downplay this side of the game suggests there is a bigger reason behind the team’s failures than many would care to admit.

Penney had been one of Tom Moody’s early appointments when he was coach and placed such a high-level focus on fielding for the 2007 World Cup. It needed a lot of hard work to reach the final of that event and the fielding skills ethic played its part. Even De Mel agreed that Sri Lanka’s lack of fielding expertise has fallen away. The local trainers, he admitted, are not quite up to the levels demanded at such a competitive level.

Yet, suggestions that Sri Lanka don’t require foreign coaches to build the side into a team that can win matches have already appeared in the sports pages of ‘The Island’, highlighting names that were household favourites 50 to 60 years ago. The game has changed dramatically during the past 10 years and new ideas are needed to take the game forward, as did the successful Moody/Penney management team.

This is one of the points that was to have been made in these files a week ago, but an emergency operation put paid to that plan. At the time when the column would have been written, the last thing from your mind is ending in an operating theatre. Life doesn’t always work out the way you want.

Yet, what does come to mind is how the results in Zimbabwe were warning enough that the ODI squad was in big trouble. No matter the selection policy, the quality of players around the Premier League suggests Sri Lanka needs to put a new squad together as frankly, there are flaws in the system and better players are being overlooked for A team members who are not of international standard. Well, not the class needed to take the team forward.

New Zealand are doing well in Australia in their annual Chappell/Hadlee Trophy series, and are rebuilding at the same time. Is there much difference here between the Kiwis and the Sri Lankans in their approach? If you give it more than a serious second thought, why is Daniel Vettori’s side on the verge achieving something Sri Lanka have always battled; winning a series in Australia.

While you think about that, have you managed to unravel the 1999 Taunton poser?

As Sri Lanka’s limited overs squad grappled with the continued embarrassment of their being outplayed, and the islanders turn their attention to more pressing matters, there is also the prickly subject of a looming Test series in Pakistan this month.

For one thing, current bowling and fielding efforts recall serious collateral damage events of World Cup 1999.

It is when, in this case, their brilliant Arjuna Ranatunga wasn’t so ‘cool’. He led the defending champions to a 157 run defeat in the 21st match of the CWC99 series against India in Taunton and suggests what has been taking place these days is nothing out of the ordinary.

As Ranatunga won the toss and in a wild gamble invited India to bat first, his next performing trick had been to blame his bowlers for dishing up rubbish. He had a reason to grieve. Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas travelled well that day (144 runs between them for a single wicket in twenty overs) and to all parts of such a cute county venue, known as Priory Avenue.

Ranatunga’s controversial axing (as captain 10 years ago) and last December as chairman of the now defunct government run interim committee, has left a startled Sri Lanka Cricket caught in the headlights of a quandary. When he was SLC chairman, Ranatunga last December decided that Sri Lanka should take up Pakistan’s offer to tour the country, despite serious security concerns and India’s sensible decision to quit their tour plans after the events of the horrific Mumbai Massacre.

At least, in Taunton he referred to the bowling as rubbish. Winning a toss and asking the opposition to bat first is always risky. But when your bowlers let you down with junk bowling, what has gone on this series suggests Sri Lanka’s bowlers have had better days, supported by good fielding. If your bowlers cannot meet a simple captain’s request by bowling line, length and direction, serious questions need to be asked about their own training programme.

As for the Sabina Park Test, a Tony Hill decision to give out Daren Powell off Steve Harmison’s bowling on Saturday night had many wondering about the accuracy of the referral system. Hill judged the catch to be fair, so did the TV umpire Daryl Harper. It was pretty shoddy all round and that was why captains Vettori and Chris Gayle felt it to be flawed when the Kiwis played the West Indies in the Shaky Isles.

If this is the best on offer, rather scrap the referral altogether and do something more constructive than rely on dodgy technology that shows clearly enough the batsman is not out, yet the TV umpire concurs with a decision that was clearly wrong.