Sri Lanka cricket is experiencing a bitter reality due to its failure to produce formidable batsmen for their middle-order. The recently concluded T20 matches against Pakistan and New Zealand and the T20 matches played during the World Cup, including its final, are classic examples of this setback, shortcoming.

In the 1996 World Cup (50 overs) and in its final, SL players of the team exposed a never-ending fighting spirit. A middle or late-order batsmen in that team, like Kumara Dharmasena, who was called ‘Unanduwa’ for his sheer grit, were well known for their enthusiasm and commitment to do well in each and every ball they faced.

Today, that fighting spirit of the Lankan players is not explicit, as it was clearly evident in the recent ODIs, when compared to the application seen when Arjuna and co. was batting those days. They turned tables in bringing the team victory at any crucial juncture of the game. They did so despite they lacked batsmen with top international recognition, like what SL enjoy today.

It is a sad situation that has overshadowed SL cricket for sometimes. Thanks to Angelo Mathew and Thilan Samaraweera, SL showed a lot of maturity and character in building up the once collapsed batting-order in the curtain-raiser of the Compaq Cup last Tuesday (8). But the resistance shown by the two batsmen --that enabled SL to comeback strongly with some fine feat in the middle-order-- has to be something continuous and consistent.

Former captain and a respected bat ever since he entered the international arena, and until his retirement, Arjuana Ranatunga, the old war horse, played his excellent knocks whenever they were needed, even during a losing course.

There were moments when the required run rate per an over was virtually impossible to get in order to gain victory and the opponent had already taken the game away --while commentators have written off any SL chances--, but the fighting spirit of Arjuna never dried up even in such tough situations.

Thus, they were the very moments that proved how a Captain and a reliable middle-order bat can contribute to his team under trying circumstances.

In his knocks, he never considered personal fifties or hundreds like some players would opt to do today. For a proof, Arjuna scored his first hundred at the age of 31 and, by doing so, he held the record for the oldest batsman to score a century in ODIs even though he had represented the country since the days he was a schoolboy. Samaraweera, 32, broke this record, in the first match against New Zealand in the current Compaq Cup, last Tuesday.

Arjuna was a batsman who could lead SL to their greatest cricketing triumph, the World Cup. His innovative captaincy played a major role in world cricket where opponents were always in constant fear of his fielding arrangements which oppressed opponent batsmen and put them in doldrums at each ball of the game. He, in his nearly 20 years of international cricket, never shied from confrontation, defending his players to the hilt.

In fact, he had an uncanny ability to keep the scoreboard ticking over using deft placement on both sides of the wicket, combined with fluent driving, through the offside in particular.

He lost his captaincy following SL's poor showing in the 1999 World Cup, and then retired from international cricket a year later, but his contribution to SL cricket is always considered overwhelming.

The real cancer that has spread on players’ mind is the personal milestones of their careers, not the victory of the team, the country. It is apparent through the way they keep scoring and when their way of batting is compared to that of the old eras.

SL cricket has failed to produce a player of Ranatunga’s calibre and it is for sure that the interest of the cricket lovers, as a result, is likely to deteriorate. Some spectator stands looked empty on Tuesday at R. Premadasa!

When the first three wickets go for a low total, it is more often than not certain that SL would go on to lose the match. This has been the real trouble for over a pretty long time now. Up to now, SL has failed in their attempt to produce a really gritty one –in real Ranatunga mould-- or two, to strengthen their middle-order.