Politics, SL Cricket, and need for Academy of Cricket

Dear cricket lovers,

Understandably the inevitable cacophony will ring to a crescendo demanding the resignation of all and sundry tagged to SL Cricket – the Head Coach, batting, bowling, fielding coach and whoever agitated fans feel have contributed to the present debacle as shown in WC 2023 in India.

Let’s pause a bit. Overreacting by taking a ‘bull in a China shop’ stance will cause more damage. 

The reality was that SL Cricket was heading towards such a disaster some years ago. Dropping players with proven ability just because of a dip in form has been key. Avishka F, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Matthews etc. should never have been dropped earlier! It was unnecessary! 

As Sunil Gavaskar always says: “Form is temporary; class is permanent” and “Talent alone is not enough without temperament”. 

What do the following SL batsmen possess in common?

Michael Tissera, Anura Tennekoon, Roy Dias, Sidath Wettimuny, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene? 

They were all supremely talented but above all – awesome temperament and significantly possessed brilliant batting techniques.

The last and supremely vital attribute stems from great coaching at school level.

Also aforementioned greats of cricket hailed from established schools in Colombo and Kandy that had legendary coaches. 

Sadly politics muddied the selection process some years ago when some big wigs wanted to shun players from established schools calling them elite and privileged. And so started a new trend of picking players from rural, disadvantaged backgrounds as long as they had batting skills; good hand eye coordination appeared to be the new norm. 

This new trend closed the door to well coached young players from so-called better colleges in Colombo, Kandy. They were sadly lost to SL Cricket for a few decades. 

Certainly Sanath Jayasooriya was an exception! Raw talent and brilliant ball hitting ability rocked the world of cricket. However Sanath J was, I repeat, an exception!

We need to establish an Academy of Cricket that attracts the best talent, skills, all round excellence and start grooming them from A-Z.

They have to be able to read a game armed with a cricket sense. Story goes how Kumar Sangakkara had this wonderful habit of reading all possible publications not only on cricket, historical aspects, players of different eras, collection of anecdotes and significantly even other areas (apart from law, of which he was a student) such as leadership, financial management and independence, public speaking, effective communication etc. 

No wonder Kumar Sangakkara emerged not only as one of the best ever in both batting and wicket keeping in all formats globally but also as a supremely effective public speaker and role model managerial leader – selected as President of MCC and now Head of The MCC Board to say nothing about Sanga’s flawless delivery as a much sought after English commentator in England. 

Ok, let’s say that Sanga was an exception, a once in a lifetime cricketing personality.

Let’s urge those think tanks to think differently. We have to move away from picking players from wherever just because they can ‘hit sixes’ at will or bowl at 145 km/hr. Pause: what about their feet movements, how do they adapt to a swinging new ball; how to spot a googly or arm ball or one that moves the ‘other way’ like how the legendary Virat Kohli copes! 

Dilshan Madushanka is a great talent, spotted by champion bowler Vaas. Yet Vaas is not the bowling coach now; replaced by an unknown entity! Get my drift?

Also SL Cricket has to address aspects of diet, protein intake, life styles (we cannot win matches if some players however talented hit the bottle, smoke, love late night fun and frolic and more!)

They have to be disciplined from the very inception where they are monitored professionally by HR experts, dieticians and even taught a global language such as English; how to respond to basic questions effectively and not utter nonsense!

In short our absolutely gifted young talent must be first schooled and groomed before they ‘graduate’ from ‘Academy of Cricket’ when merit and merit alone is considered apart from knowledge of the encyclopaedia of cricket to be able to discern the macro picture of any cricketing scenario like how Sanga did! Of course for Sanga there was no natural talent in his formative days; yet his never say die attitude became legendary – the first to hit the nets and the last to leave after hours of gruelling, intense training! Hard-work never killed anyone but made them professional in all aspects, period! 

So as lovers of SL Cricket, please do not take any hasty action now. We need to assess and indeed reassess all relevant aspects not only batting, bowling, fielding, physical fitness etc. which are rudimentary; we need to get back to the Drawing Board and our medium and long term strategy in place. 

And we please need the best balanced, sane professionals sans any type of quick fix so called crack-pot solutions.

As sincere, knowledgeable lovers of SL Cricket, we urge those entrusted with all relevant matters of Sri Lanka Cricket to please alter course, now! 

Yours in the name of Sri Lanka Cricket.