Another Cricket Post, Another World Cup Post!
ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 has been a mini roller-coaster so far. Just when you thought your ride was coming to a standstill (thanks to English wet weather and a bunch of one-sided games), it just took off for another spin with a string of close games and a couple of “upsets” which injected some much-needed life into the tournament.
Pre-tournament favorites England had a couple of hiccups along the way losing to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but they are back on track with the victory over India. Australia has looked solid and they have gotten better with each game – ominous signs! India and New Zealand look all set to make the semis as well. Pakistan and Bangladesh are still in the running for a knock-out birth, but the practical chances are remote. Having said that, is there another twist in the tale? Cricket of course is a funny old game with a history of throwing up a few surprises along the way.
As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, they are already out of the tournament. At the time of writing this post, they have just one game left against India. If history is anything to go by, they will lose that game comfortably as well. But it would be worth looking at whether Sri Lanka came out of the tournament with a positive closing balance on their side.
Pre-tournament favorites England had a couple of hiccups along the way losing to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but they are back on track with the victory over India. Australia has looked solid and they have gotten better with each game – ominous signs! India and New Zealand look all set to make the semis as well. Pakistan and Bangladesh are still in the running for a knock-out birth, but the practical chances are remote. Having said that, is there another twist in the tale? Cricket of course is a funny old game with a history of throwing up a few surprises along the way.
As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, they are already out of the tournament. At the time of writing this post, they have just one game left against India. If history is anything to go by, they will lose that game comfortably as well. But it would be worth looking at whether Sri Lanka came out of the tournament with a positive closing balance on their side.
(Source: https://www.edailysports.com/icc-cricket-world-cup-2019-sri-lanka-fixtures-results/)
As with accounting, it all starts with the opening balance. Not many people gave Sri Lanka a chance before the tournament began and rightly so as well. They had lost a significant majority of their games in the last couple years and even the very few games they did manage to win were mostly either dead-rubbers or against minor nations.
Even the cricket loving islanders thought Sri Lanka might end up with the wooden spoon but somewhere deep down in their hearts, they knew that they had a decent chance of winning against Afghanistan, Bangladesh and perhaps even the West Indies. And they knew Pakistan on their day can just not turn up given that they had lost almost all their recent matches leading up to the tournament. But at the same time, everyone knew even a team as inexperienced as Afghanistan could give Sri Lanka a real run for their money.
Now with just one game to go, if we balance the accounts, you see that they have ‘W’s against Afghanistan, England and the West Indies. The games against Bangladesh and Pakistan were washed out without a ball being bowled and mind you that was before Pakistan had begun their surcharge. So, Sri Lanka might possibly have lost an opportunity to bag 4 points although those two results could have gone either way given how well Bangladesh has played in this world cup.
We can only speculate about the two washouts, but we can certainly talk about the 3 wins and the losses. The win against Afghanistan was expected (although Sri Lanka made heavy weather of it in the end). West Indies’ win was somewhat expected as well given how poor they had been leading up to the match against Sri Lanka. But the victory over England would go down as the biggest upset of the tournament – only Afghanistan could have toppled that had they managed to win against India. Losing to South Africa was a major disappointment given South Africa’s monumental struggle in this world cup.
So where can Sri Lanka go from here? Surely the selectors should have realized by now that Jeevan Mendis, Milinda Siriwardene and Jeffry Vandersey do not belong at this well. But to the selectors’ credit, the punt they took on Avishka Fernando paid off in grand style. They made the right call on Nuwan Pradeep and Dimuth Karunaratne as well. But the worries are far from over.
Both Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews struggled for consistency, although most people agree that they have what it takes to make numbers 4 and 5 their own. Dimuth is definitely the right person to lead this side but is he the right batsman to open the batting? He would have been if he was not blocking out the likes the Avishka Fernando, Niroshan Dickwella and Danushka Gunathilake. Then there is the perineal issue of number 6. Out of all the players, Thisara Perera probably had the biggest disparity between pre-tournament expectations versus the actual performances. This leaves number 7 open as well – under normal circumstances you would not consider replacing a player after one bad tournament specially when he has been your best ODI cricketer over the last 12 to 15 months but we are talking about a world cup where you start planning for the future. So, is Thisara the right man at 7?
Apart from Lasith Malinga and to a certain degree, Nuwan Pradeep, everyone else struggled with the ball. Well, Dhananjaya de Silva who eventually turned out to be the lead spinner of the side did a more than decent job. But Sri Lanka really needs to find their mojo with the ball through the likes of Suranga Lakmal, Isuru Udana, Nuwan Pradeep, Kasun Rajitha, and Lahiru Kumara. And it is an uphill task to find a good spinner.
But the biggest question is do they have good enough players outside this pool to call up? Yes, there are the likes of Dickwella, Gunathilake, Dhananjaya, Kumara, etc. But they are all labeled as tried-tested and failed options. Well, not quite. The two fundamental mistakes Sri Lanka have made over the last 2 years is a. trying out too many players (not giving long enough opportunities) and b. not assigning and persisting with specific roles for each individual. The latter has contributed to the demise of the former and vice-versa.
And the players themselves have not shown enough improvement either. Once you play cricket and gain experience, you are expected to improve at a certain ‘by default’ rate. Good players improve at a rate beyond this and great players go even further. But the typical crop of Sri Lankan players has not even improved at the ‘by default’ rate. They can of course throw the blame at system and the administrators can put the blame on the players but both parties must realize that they are accountable for their own mistakes. You cannot hide from the fact that mistakes were made by both parties.
Now it is the time for the administrators and the support staff to stick to a set 15 to 18 players and more importantly assign them with specific roles while creating the right environment off the field. For the players, it is up to them to improve their own game beyond the ‘by default’ level. One year later, if there are players who have played the same match 30 times rather than showing the maturity and competencies you expect from a player with 30 matches under his belt, you decide whether to keep him or leave him. But this axe should only be brought out after giving the selected bunch of players at least one year to blossom in perfect possible conditions.
As with accounting, it all starts with the opening balance. Not many people gave Sri Lanka a chance before the tournament began and rightly so as well. They had lost a significant majority of their games in the last couple years and even the very few games they did manage to win were mostly either dead-rubbers or against minor nations.
Even the cricket loving islanders thought Sri Lanka might end up with the wooden spoon but somewhere deep down in their hearts, they knew that they had a decent chance of winning against Afghanistan, Bangladesh and perhaps even the West Indies. And they knew Pakistan on their day can just not turn up given that they had lost almost all their recent matches leading up to the tournament. But at the same time, everyone knew even a team as inexperienced as Afghanistan could give Sri Lanka a real run for their money.
Now with just one game to go, if we balance the accounts, you see that they have ‘W’s against Afghanistan, England and the West Indies. The games against Bangladesh and Pakistan were washed out without a ball being bowled and mind you that was before Pakistan had begun their surcharge. So, Sri Lanka might possibly have lost an opportunity to bag 4 points although those two results could have gone either way given how well Bangladesh has played in this world cup.
We can only speculate about the two washouts, but we can certainly talk about the 3 wins and the losses. The win against Afghanistan was expected (although Sri Lanka made heavy weather of it in the end). West Indies’ win was somewhat expected as well given how poor they had been leading up to the match against Sri Lanka. But the victory over England would go down as the biggest upset of the tournament – only Afghanistan could have toppled that had they managed to win against India. Losing to South Africa was a major disappointment given South Africa’s monumental struggle in this world cup.
So where can Sri Lanka go from here? Surely the selectors should have realized by now that Jeevan Mendis, Milinda Siriwardene and Jeffry Vandersey do not belong at this well. But to the selectors’ credit, the punt they took on Avishka Fernando paid off in grand style. They made the right call on Nuwan Pradeep and Dimuth Karunaratne as well. But the worries are far from over.
Both Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews struggled for consistency, although most people agree that they have what it takes to make numbers 4 and 5 their own. Dimuth is definitely the right person to lead this side but is he the right batsman to open the batting? He would have been if he was not blocking out the likes the Avishka Fernando, Niroshan Dickwella and Danushka Gunathilake. Then there is the perineal issue of number 6. Out of all the players, Thisara Perera probably had the biggest disparity between pre-tournament expectations versus the actual performances. This leaves number 7 open as well – under normal circumstances you would not consider replacing a player after one bad tournament specially when he has been your best ODI cricketer over the last 12 to 15 months but we are talking about a world cup where you start planning for the future. So, is Thisara the right man at 7?
Apart from Lasith Malinga and to a certain degree, Nuwan Pradeep, everyone else struggled with the ball. Well, Dhananjaya de Silva who eventually turned out to be the lead spinner of the side did a more than decent job. But Sri Lanka really needs to find their mojo with the ball through the likes of Suranga Lakmal, Isuru Udana, Nuwan Pradeep, Kasun Rajitha, and Lahiru Kumara. And it is an uphill task to find a good spinner.
But the biggest question is do they have good enough players outside this pool to call up? Yes, there are the likes of Dickwella, Gunathilake, Dhananjaya, Kumara, etc. But they are all labeled as tried-tested and failed options. Well, not quite. The two fundamental mistakes Sri Lanka have made over the last 2 years is a. trying out too many players (not giving long enough opportunities) and b. not assigning and persisting with specific roles for each individual. The latter has contributed to the demise of the former and vice-versa.
And the players themselves have not shown enough improvement either. Once you play cricket and gain experience, you are expected to improve at a certain ‘by default’ rate. Good players improve at a rate beyond this and great players go even further. But the typical crop of Sri Lankan players has not even improved at the ‘by default’ rate. They can of course throw the blame at system and the administrators can put the blame on the players but both parties must realize that they are accountable for their own mistakes. You cannot hide from the fact that mistakes were made by both parties.
Now it is the time for the administrators and the support staff to stick to a set 15 to 18 players and more importantly assign them with specific roles while creating the right environment off the field. For the players, it is up to them to improve their own game beyond the ‘by default’ level. One year later, if there are players who have played the same match 30 times rather than showing the maturity and competencies you expect from a player with 30 matches under his belt, you decide whether to keep him or leave him. But this axe should only be brought out after giving the selected bunch of players at least one year to blossom in perfect possible conditions.
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