England tour is all about preparing players for the future – Kalpage

 It has been a learning curve for Sri Lanka Under-19 cricketers on their tour of UK

• Take on England Under-19 in two 4-day Youth tests

Ruwan Kalpage, the Head Coach said that Sri Lanka’s current Under-19 cricket tour of England is all about preparing the next generation of cricketers for the national team.

“I am not duly worried about the result or the series, we played good cricket,” said Kalpage. “That is what it is all about. We have found totally new talent – like Mahith Perera getting two fifties, and Gayana Weerasinghe scoring an 80, 57 and 20. There are 18 players in the tour party and we kept changing the team to give everyone a chance. We want to give exposure to other players. From the practice game they have played really well.”

Sri Lanka lost the three-match Youth ODI series to England (Under-19) 2-1, but all the games were closely fought affairs except for the first match where Sri Lanka won by 65 runs. The second game Sri Lanka chased England’s massive total of 360-7 but fell short by 30 and in the final match affected by rain they lost by four runs under the DLS method.

For the coaching staff the majority of the players were all new and some of them were meeting only for the first time.

“I got these players on 26 May. As a team we had not met early,” said Kalpage. “I can’t give any excuses but we had only two weeks training before coming to England, but still we competed really well with them. It is the height of the English cricket season and they were an experienced side.”

“We had only three main players from our Under-19 World Cup squad in the playing 11, the remaining eight are totally new. But I am excited for them because if we had given them the same exposure as those players, where would they be? In all the games we scored a good number of runs but the finishing touch as a team and as a group they have yet to learn.”

Kalpage feels the two 4-day Under-19 tests beginning at Wormsley on Monday ,will be another new challenge for the boys, the majority of whom have played only two-day school cricket. Only Thomian cricketers Mahith Perera and Nathan Caldera have any experience of 3-day cricket having played in the Royal-Thomian.

“I am looking for competitiveness, which is the most important thing in coaching. The results we can sort out. When you keep on competing, the winning habit will come to you gradually. They will learn and know how to win matches.”

Kalpage observed that the England Under-19 cricketers had the same set up as their national team where all the bases are covered. “If we want results we have to treat our players the right way. When you look at our standards and theirs, it’s totally different, they are professionals.”

Regarding the penalising of five runs in the second ODI, Kalpage said that he spoke to his players about the umpires complaining that they were shouting too much on the field. There were no complaints after that in the third ODI. “They took it up in a positive manner.”

“We have the talent but we must have the real structure going into the system. The people who are working with the players should have patience. Then we can work wonders with these Under-19 players.” – (ST)