Sri Lanka walking on thin ice

 The crowning moment: Sri Lanka winning the Cricket World Cup in 1996

• 2023 Cricket World Cup in India

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s fifty-over cricket of which we were once world champions, and a dominant force has reached the bottom of the abyss that they find themselves in danger of not qualifying for a place at the next Cricket World Cup scheduled to take place in India in October-November this year.

Sri Lanka were winners of the Cricket World Cup in 1996 and twice finalists in 2007 and 2011. Sri Lanka has taken part in each and every Cricket World Cup since its inception in 1975, and it would be a black day for Sri Lanka cricket if we don’t make it to the 2023 edition.

Sri Lanka’s decline took place from around 2016 when three batting stalwarts Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan retired from international cricket. Since that time Sri Lanka has failed to find proper replacements for these cricketing icons and batting has always been the snag. It has seen them slide downwards in the rankings that they have been hovering between 7th and 10th positions for the past seven years or so which is quite a long time for a team to recover. The recent tour of New Zealand was an acid test for Sri Lanka to qualify for the Cricket World Cup. They were required to beat New Zealand 3-0 in the ODI series, a task that was beyond them given that their performances in the format was so inconsistent and only once before had they won an ODI series in New Zealand. Not surprisingly Sri Lanka were beaten 2-0 and with it faded their chances of gaining automatic qualification.

Sri Lanka’s dismal showing in this format has put them in a position to qualify for the last two places in the ten-nation tournament. The first eight teams were decided on the rankings of the World Cup Super League, leaving the 9th and 10th places to be competed in ten-team World Cup Qualifying tournament that will take place in Zimbabwe between 18 June and 9 July.

It won’t be an easy passage to qualify for these two places as there are other full member nations and associate nations also keen to make the cut. It includes the five teams that finished at the bottom of the World Cup Super League Netherlands (35 points), Zimbabwe (65), Sri Lanka (81), West Indies (88) and one of Ireland (68) or South Africa (98), the top three teams from the ICC’s World Cup Cricket League 2 (Nepal, Oman and Scotland) and the two teams from the Qualifier Playoff (USA and UAE). The top two teams from the qualifier will advance to the 10-team field at this year’s World Cup.

The seven teams already qualified are New Zealand, England, India (hosts), Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia and Afghanistan.