Women’s cricket bound to rise like men’s after ‘96 World Cup – Ratnayake

Sri Lanka women’s head coach Rumesh Ratnayake with Hasini Perera and  Nilakshi Silva 

• “It is the fastest growth in the women’s cricket team anybody has seen in the past two years”

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Women’s cricket head coach Rumesh Ratnayake was of the view that Sri Lanka’s victory in the Women’s Asia Cup against India would bring about an upsurge in women’s cricket in the country similarly to when they won the men’s cricket World Cup in 1996.

“You can draw similar comparisons even though it’s not the World Cup. The 1996 win made cricket the sport of Sri Lanka and every parent wanted their sons turn into cricketers. That will happen on a larger scale now for women’s cricket also,” said Ratnayake after Sri Lanka’s emphatic eight-wicket win over India in the Asia Cup final. “I think women’s cricket will grow 30-40% from the schools in the next two years and it’s a huge growth.”

It has been building towards a crescendo for the past 14 months that something had to break out because the brand of cricket Sri Lanka women cricketers were playing was not keeping with past Sri Lankan women teams. It was bold, innovative, fearless and with a purpose. And when it did happen at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium on Sunday the entire stadium erupted into joyous scenes of celebration.

Sri Lanka had finally beaten India who had looked invincible in the first eight editions of the Women’s Asia Cup winning seven of them including the last one held in Bangladesh in 2022. They broke the shackles that had bound the rest of the teams from Asia in this competition.

It has been done once when Bangladesh beat India in Kuala Lumpur in the 2018 edition by three wickets, otherwise it has been one country holding dominance.

Sri Lanka’s win meant a lot not only to the players but also to the entire nation that has gone through a lot of strife of late. This Asia Cup win has given them something to celebrate and be proud of.

“I would say it is the fastest growth in the women’s cricket team anybody has seen in the past two years,” said Ratnayake.

“We started gaining momentum after beating South Africa in the first match of the T20 World Cup in 2023, after which we had victories against Bangladesh, New Zealand, England, runner-up to India in Asian Games in China, beat South Africa and in the T20 World Qualifiers beat Scotland in the final, and West Indies where we changed teams and tried new players which paved the way for this tournament.”

For Ratnayake it was like rolling back the years. It was his pace bowling that brought Sri Lanka their first Test victory when they beat India in 1985. Ratnayake on that occasion took a match bag of nine wickets including the final wicket that of Indian Captain Kapil Dev. And now 39 years down the line Ratnayake as a coach has achieved something for Sri Lanka women’s cricket by winning the Asia Cup and beating India in the final.

“I would love to take it as an achievement but it’s an achievement for the team,” Ratnayake said humbly. “The first Test victory was an achievement. It broke through a lot of barriers and opened up a lot of areas because we managed to beat a team in Test cricket for the first time. It was a huge first. This first Asia Cup victory I would say is on par with it.”

“We shouldn’t be over-awed by this victory, we should enjoy it as much as the time we have together in the next few days, after that we have to prepare for Ireland (leaving on 6 August) and then the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh. The confidence we gain from here we should take it and try to be a notch or two higher than this in the World Cup.”

What we saw from the Lankan women cricketers is that they played fearlessly attacking the Indian bowling which rarely happens.

“It’s all due to the hard work they have done in their preparations and training,” said Ratnayake. “The last match (against Pakistan) was our best game because that was our preparation for the final. In our analysis we were about 6 out of 10. To win a match you had to get 8 or 9. Yesterday (Sunday) our performance was 9+. The Pakistan match was only 6 and we still managed to win. We fielded and bowled badly and we didn’t bat well at all. It was pure guts. The encouragement from that we took to the final.”

“For the final I told them to enjoy it even if they drop catches or get hit for a six. When the environment is that I believe your hands are not tied. That’s my experience and that’s what I am trying to instill in them. You have to be free to express yourself and go out with a lot of confidence. It’s a work in progress.” – (ST)