CRICKET Lovely Cricket...or lousy Cricket?

“Them days are gone – gone forever,” a passionate, greying cricketer of yester-year commented and pronounced loudly, “Captains are not selected for their leadership qualities but it is the sole prerogative of the selectors whose choice is unquestionable, except at the market square when one hears ineffective talk by cricket lovers.”

He continued with a sarcastic smile, “Aren’t the selectors more important than the players. Yes to the players who become bag carriers on overseas tours. The cricketers earn plenty and they should be happy and grateful of course to us.  Shouldn’t they.” the selectors joke amongst themselves?

Captains are captains, but all good cricketers are not captains. Some selectors find this difficult to comprehend.

Captaincy is one of the most important positions of a team and therefore its selection is of great important.   However, very noticeable in Sri Lanka is that the selectors consider themselves more important, more capable, and more knowledgeable than anybody else and bask in their self-esteemed glory that some have played better cricket than today’s players.   

Soon after the world cup loss to India, Sangakkara resigned. Did the selectors find out why or do the selectors know. Why?

Our great and influential selectors witnessed the inexplicable performance of Nuwan Kulasekera. The VIP Selector was there but still NK was not reprimanded nor questioned.  

We fared extremely well up to the finals, but what went wrong?  

The innocent public was jubilant at our performance till the finals. Patriotic feelings of the Islanders were high. Expectations rose dizzy heights, bets were one-sided and no takers. All expected a clean game of cricket. This was the world cup finals.  

Missed chances, stumping, run-outs were not cup final cricket. However, in this day of Yantras and Mantras did Vijay Malla’s visit to the country before the finals spell a charm to our players.      

There are no gentlemen in today’s game only players where money dictates. We can only speculate the reason for our loss at the finals – but we may never find out the truth why the favourite team lost?

We tend to forget, the past is past, but still it may remain in the hinterland of the mind’s recesses in a few and we hope that it would surface sometime in the future.

The incumbent Captain is a fine batsman, delightful to watch.

He had apparently said to a bowler to bowl a wide ball in a limited over game when a run was all that was required for a win by the opponents and thus deprived the batsman of a well deserving century. Does the incumbent Captain have the ingredients of captaincy?

Captaincy amongst other ingredients should inspire confidence and lead the team from the front. He must have frequent dialogues with the team and not remain aloof.  

A Captain cannot be a haphazard choice of the selectors.  

Sri Lanka was at the crest before we lost the finals.

The aftermath of the inexplicable loss is that it has eroded the confidence of the team and may take a very long time to over come. An opportunity lost and opportunities may never come twice.

Talent wasted and talent lost is the loving cricket public’s inheritance. A curse to those who influenced our cricketers is well deserved if our loss was for no other reason.