U-19 Coach Sudarshana confident of delivering in World Cup

The Sri Lanka team that took part in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup in South Africa   

Appointed nine months ago; not a single practice session possible due to pandemic

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s maiden attempt to win an ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup kick starts from next month when a pool of 65 players will go into a residential training camp in Pallekele – Kandy.

These players who will first go into a bio-bubble will play a series of matches before the pool is pruned down to about 25 or 30 players who will continue training until the Under-19 World Cup, which will be hosted by West Indies in January 2022. Prior to that, they will also take part in the ACC Under-19 tournament to be held in Dubai in October 2021.

Sri Lanka has had a succession of Under-19 coaches over the years who had failed to take the team over the line like Lalith Kaluperuma, Hemal Mendis, Owen Mottau, D.S. de Silva, Carlton Bernadus, Naveed Nawaz, Roger Wijesuriya, Roy Dias and Hashan Tillakaratne to name a few. Of the lot, Bernadus was the most successful, taking the team to the final in 2000 along with D.S. de Silva as manager cum coach against India to whom they lost when Sri Lanka hosted the tournament. Till today, that performance remains the best for Sri Lanka in the ICC Under-19 World Cup.

The last Under-19 World Cup held in South Africa in 2020 when Tillakaratne was coach was the worst for Sri Lanka, finishing 10th out of 14.

Of the four full member Asian nations of the ICC, Sri Lanka are the only country yet to win an under-19 World Cup despite boasting one of the world’s best school cricket structures. India has won it the most, with four occasions (2000, 2008, 2012, 2018), Pakistan 2 times (2004, 2006) and Bangladesh the reigning champs (2020). 

The onus is now on Dhammika Sudarshana, the highly successful first eleven coach of Richmond College – Galle, who has been given a two-year interim appointment as Coach of the Sri Lanka Under-19 team by Sri Lanka Cricket succeeding Tillakaratne. It is under Sudarshana that the pool of 65 players will come under in Pallekele.

“I am taking this as a challenge. I have only six months to get the players ready before the World Cup in January. Considering the time factor, I have only about 50% of the time to prepare them because of the lockdown. That is a big challenge,” said Sudarshana. 

“What is actually required at this moment is that I will have to do a lot of practice individually with the players to bring them to the required standard. This is the first time I have been appointed to this post and I take it as a challenge because it has to be done in six months, but I have the confidence I can do it.”

“My contract is for two years and finishes with the 2022 Under-19 World Cup. In September 2020, I was appointed Under-19 interim coach, but so far as a squad we have not practiced at all due to the pandemic. If I have a two-year uninterrupted cycle, I can do a lot for Under-19 cricket from the player development side. 

“My duty as an Under-19 coach is to prepare players to graduate to the national team. I want to apply the same principles I applied to the school team which was successful and obtain the same results. The challenge is the time factor. I will do my best,” he said.

Sudarshana will handle the batting part and he will be assisted by Sachith Pathirana (spin-bowling coach), Chamila Gamage (fast-bowling coach) and Upul Chandana (fielding coach).

SLC CEO Ashley de Silva said: “What we are doing is we have selected about 65 players after playing some provincial games. The provincial and district selectors along with the national selectors have picked the squad based on the performances of the players,” he said.

“The selectors went around during the provincial matches and they also took into account the performances during the recent schools season where some limited-over matches were also played, and the 65 players have been identified,” continued De Silva.

“We are going to have a residential camp for them in Pallekele, where they will go into a bubble in mid-July and then get them to play some matches. They would play some warm-up games and after that they would play some 50-over games. Then we would be pruning the pool down to about 25 to 30 players and we will continue with those players until the Under-19 World Cup in January next year. When it is pruned down to 25 players we will release the names,” he said.

De Silva stated that the health protocols which has been followed for the national team will be followed here as well.