Another 3-0 drubbing in T20Is: Apprentices running our cricket?

Dasun Shanaka is run out for seven as Sri Lanka get bowled out for 91 – their fourth-lowest total in T20 Internationals in the third T20I against England at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Saturday

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Another 3-0 drubbing in T20I cricket this time at the hands of England, the current no. 1 ranked T20I side, opens up a heap of questions about where Sri Lanka cricket is headed at the moment.

You need to pick horses for courses and the national selectors and coaches are getting their priorities all wrong. They are picking the wrong players and the results are what you get. For instance, Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva and Oshada Fernando are not T20I players. They simply do not have the skill. Then they are playing Niroshan Dickwella at no. 5 whereas since he was a kid he has been opening the batting. His career stats prove that he has made the most runs in T20Is and ODIs when he has opened. In T20Is he has scored 350 of his career 480 runs (or 73%) and in ODIs he has scored 1,190 runs out of 1,578 (75.41%) which is inclusive of 2 centuries and 7 fifties.

How many times have we pointed out this blunder in our columns? (Daily FT 10 March and 28 May 2021). It is either the selectors and coaches don’t understand English or they can’t make up their minds to pick the right batsman in the right position. They simply do not have the wherewithal to figure out where to slot these players in.

It was so painful to watch our cricketers lack the footwork and the technique to get bat to ball during the England series. It has nothing to do with winning or losing. We have no issues with it because it is part and parcel of sports, but you don’t lose by a margin of 89 runs in a T20I. The damning fact of what was on display is the total blunders in the selection, in skills, in technique, and basically performing at the international level. Our players looked so amateurish in spite of having all these highly paid technical support staff around them. Wonder what they talk to the team about?

The number of dot balls in the three T20Is, the percentage alone is a damning indictment of the coaching staff. There were 37 dot balls (37.6%) in the first T20I, 52 dot balls (41.93%) in the second T20I, and 74 dot balls (61.66%) in the third T20I.

What an indictment it is, not to get a single boundary in the first power play with the field restrictions. It happened in the second T20I at Cardiff. What more do you have to say about planning and execution? We have pointed this out time and time again about the importance of footwork clearly in black and white (Daily FT 10 May and 28 May 2021). Is anybody paying attention? At this level of international cricket, footwork is irrevocable and you need to pick batsmen who have the right technique.

There is no rocket science to it, it is simple hand-eye coordination with the feet in place and you play a shot. Where was the rotation of strike? The moment you do that the gaps will automatically open but by playing down dot balls you only put the fielding side on top and that is what Sri Lanka did in the three T20Is.

Chairman of selectors Pramodya Wickramasinghe comes on record and says that they are planning for the 2023 World Cup on head coach Mickey Arthur’s plans. How much stupider can you get? The first people who should be given the sack are the two coaches – Arthur and batting coach Grant Flower.

What we hear from them after every game is that we are learning. What is there to learn? They are paid top dollar, they have to pick the right 11 and guide them in the right direction. There was also Sri Lanka’s highly paid director of cricket Tom Moody watching the dismal batting scenario. Wonder what he has to say? Have we hired apprentices who are learning on the job while earning top dollar?

This captaincy appointment of Kusal Perera is a total disaster. Who are they going to fall back on now? They cannot go back to the seniors because they are all sacked captains. It just shows that the so-called cricket pundits know very little or nothing about picking teams. Wickramasinghe and his team of selectors are clueless. You need to have the courage to identify the players and play them. They are talking about young players but not one player made his debut in the T20I series and when they keep picking bowlers like Akila Dananjaya, where do you go from here? The moment he bowls with a straight arm, he is not one-tenth the bowler he is.

SLC is only worried about making money for themselves. They couldn’t give a tuppence about the good name of the country. Then we have a Sports Minister who has been led up the garden path. At the end of the day, he will end up carrying the can, while the rest will simply back off. This Sports Minister cannot figure out what is good advice and what is bad advice and very shortly, he will face the consequences of his folly.

Unless there is a genuine desire at the top, there is nowhere for Sri Lanka cricket to go but to the bottom of the pile.