Post Mortem: Sri Lanka’s skipper resigns
Mahela Jayawardene has announced that he will be stepping down as captain of Sri Lanka at the end of the upcoming Test tour of Pakistan.
Mahela addressing the media, stated that the decision was something he had been considering over a period of time, and he always intended for his successor to have at minimum 18 months at the helm prior to World Cup 2011.
The decision to step down, however, coincides with a 4-1 series loss to India and three consecutive ODI home series losses.
The man tipped to take over the captaincy is none other than Mahela’s mate, and vice captain through the troubled times, Kumar Sangakkara. It is left to be seen if a change of leadership is the answer to Sri Lanka’s recent ODI performances.
I doubt that Kumar can do what Mahela could not.
There is no doubt in my mind that Kumar Sangakkara will make for a brilliant skipper. But there is doubt that he can better our recent performances under Mahela.
The weak and constantly changing administration is more the root cause of these failures than the man at the helm.
Arjuna Ranatunga’s twelve months as the chairman combined with our media’s blind devotion to non relevant issues such as Test cricket Vs T20 – County Vs Money – has severely dented the confidence and the morale of the team.
Cricket is the last thing on your mind when the administration that governs you is trying to put a huge hole in your pocket. Arjuna’s attitude towards IPL and the entire England tour fiasco unsettled the players. What ensued in the local press hurt the players deeply.
These are professional sportsmen who toil day in and day out to remain fit and at the top of their game. They have sacrificed a lot to warrant commercial endorsements and IPL contracts.
They deserve every penny they make and it is not up to Sri Lanka Cricket to hurt them financially. I am not only referring to the pockets of Mahela and Kumar.
Twelve Sri Lankans took part in the opening leg of the IPL. The recent auction saw newcomers like Weeraratne and Thushara up for auction. All these players would have been affected financially by Ranatunga’s motives.
The captain was not directly responsible for Sri Lanka’s devastating home series loss to India. Every match that Sri Lanka lost in the series was lost before even a ball was bowled. The toss was the deciding factor in the series.
It baffled me how the TV commentators commended Anuruddha Polonowita on what a great job he had done with the pitch. Yet the captains at the toss clearly stated the importance of batting first.
Under lights at the Premadasa a finger spinner like Pragyan Ojha spun the ball at right angles. That’s not the ability of the player it’s the assistance from the pitch. On the only occasion Sri Lanka won the toss SL piled on 320 runs which was on par with the totals India had set batting first.
In the process of making 320 India’s fielders and bowlers looked pressed and under pressure. Resembling Sri Lanka’s bowling and fielding in the previous games.
In the last 12 months SLC has done very little towards maintaining and uplifting the playing surfaces at most of its international venues. We are, however, currently hosting a Canadian team due to a pledge to Cricket Canada made by Arjuna Ranatunga to aide in the development of Cricket in Canada.
At the start of the India series Polonowita, SLC’s official curator, made a public statement claiming he had no time to prepare the Dambulla wicket.
Our priorities are skewed and the results are showing.
It’s not just this series loss to India or the wickets in Sri Lanka. With the exception of Dilshan and Sangakkara our batsmen have struggled. In recent matches the failure of our top order gave the middle order players like Kapugedera a chance to prove their skill. But none of the youngsters have grabbed the opportunity.
Kandamby played some useful knocks, but his terrible fielding and dropped catches negate his achievements. This is international sport. The bar should be set high. Only the best must represent their nation.
That raises a new question. Why is Dilhara Fernando still playing?
What has Fernando done to deserve this free ride in the team? Dilhara Fernando is not an inexperienced newcomer. With 132 ODI matches under his belt he is a senior player in the team and the weakest link in the team.
I am all for sending players back into the domestic circuit and bringing them back into form at the domestic level not at the international level. In 132 matches Fernando has 166 wickets at an economy rate of 5.18.
Would you pick me to play for Sri Lanka? I can probably get a wicket every ten overs. It seems that a wicket every match is enough to keep a bowler in the team.
Mahroof has to come to the point that he realizes “Yes, I can bowl a leg cutter but it’s going for a hell of a lot of runs because I can’t control the length”. Bowling a leg cutter slower ball short and waist high is just asking for trouble. I’m sure the SLC video analyst will point that out to Maharoof. Wait..Do we have one of those?
Talking about what we have and don’t have. Is it me or has Sri Lanka’s once intense fielding drills settled to Farbrace knocking a few balls around?
What happened to a fielding coach?
On the subject of coaches. Bayliss’ tenure as coach of Sri Lanka has been a nightmare. Trevor was appointed coach in mid 2007. Now nearing almost a two year tenure Bayliss’ team has hardly displayed consistency or progress. With the exception of the emergence of Mendis all else looks bleak.
This is not to insinuate that Bayliss is the cause of our failures – under Tom Moody we lost 5-1 to India and had a spade of other losses. But to Tom’s credit he developed the unit to believe in themselves. He inspired. I haven’t seen any inspiration in Bayliss’ remarks to the media. In fact I feel gutted when he refers to the team as ‘them’.
I don’t see a strong character a tough leader when I look at Bayliss.
Indeed, that’s not the job of the coach but Sri Lanka is a team of humble characters who occasionally require a kick start. There is an age old saying “you get what you paid for”.
With a limited low ball budget the hunt for international coaches had to be limited to a list of virtual unknown club coaches. In the past the strategy has worked. People like Whatmore, Davison, and Moody gained some recognition after coaching Sri Lanka. They were club or county coaches and Sri Lanka was their first international stint.
I was one of those who felt that we could have extended Moody’s contract by offering him a package that would have suited his financial needs. Moody left Sri Lanka claiming he required more time with his family.
The truth however is that SLC was paying him next to nothing when compared to pay packages of other international coaches. Sri Lanka received One Million US Dollars for being runners-up in the 2007 World Cup. Not to mention prize money from individual matches. SLC chose to let Moody leave when they had the finances to keep him.
The dilemma facing our cricket administration was highlighted when Lasith Malinga was picked to make his comeback into international cricket in a T20 game! Malinga was sidelined from cricket for one year due to injury.
The lad is considered to be a match winner – the fastest bowler in Sri Lanka. He was thrown into the deep end to bowl 4 overs in a slog fest. But when Sri Lanka were 2-0 facing a series defeat to India.
The cricket board could not make an exception to the squad and introduce Malinga who was fit and able.
They say hindsight is 20-20. So let me use a better example. Why did we not choose to include Malinga into the ODI squad when we were 3-0 down faced with just two dead rubber matches? If you want to groom him back into international cricket an ODI match is better suited than 4 overs in a T20?
To see long lasting results our administration should be governed by steady professionals.
Interim committees and constantly changing administrators have ruined our sport. Politicians do what politicians do best. They do not make good cricket administrators.
It’s time we invest in a group of neutral professionals to govern our sport. We need transparent financial professionals to manage our finances. The Sri Lankan Cricket Board requires a complete over haul.
Kick the old cronies out and bring some young professionals in. Be willing to pay people a decent wage for their services and turn away the free volunteers.
Remember “you get what you paid for”.
Comments
2 January 2009
23 hours 48 min
Yup, I concur with every thing you stated. Everytime Sri Lanka have not played well, it has been due to the amount of problems caused by the Sri Lanka Cricket Administration. Its ridiculous. Honeslty muchan, when you look at it, the two countries suffering the most (TOP COUNTRIES) in world cricket right now is Sri Lanka and Pakistan . WHY? because we have politicians running the games on their views. I believe that Gamini Lokuge spends way to much time worrying about cricket that he does any other sport in SL, also Ashantha De Mel being a really good friend of the president doesnt really help anyones cause, if you know what I mean.
We need a complete overhaul. People like sidat Wettamuny should be running cricket and not the morons who have no idea what it really means to play International cricket.
sigh.. i really hope somethings done soon. I believe this is just the start of a really long unsettling term for Sri Lanka. Whoever becomes captain next, good luck - ur in for one hell of a ride. However, i still believe Mahela made the wrong decision, really really bad timing.
11 February 2009
1 year 25 weeks
Yes! You are right on the money sir!The botched up England tour, the IPL fiasco and the conflicts between the players and the administration which followed should be highlighted as the main reasons for the present situation SL cricket is in.Mahela should not have resigned.He should have answered the critics with his performances.He has done yeomen service to SL cricket as Captain.Hats off Sir!Good luck to whoever is appointed Captain.
20 December 2008
6 weeks 6 days
Sad day for Srilanka Cricket.
First sunny & clear morning for this year, I was walking along happily this morning to work, when I got a text from Srilanka, it said "Mahela stepped down as captain, thought you'd like to know". Suddenly, I wasn't so positive about the day anymore.
Not been able to log on to the Internet to get more details didn't help much.
Of course Mahela went through a bad patch lately, a very long bad patch perhaps. But in my opinion, Mahela Jayawardene was the best captain Srilanka ever had.
He may not have brought us the World Cup home in 2007, but he gave it a damn good shot. Having been there personally for the WC finals in Barbados, all I can say is, yes we lost to Australia and the weather but, we lost with dignity. I've heard so many times during my 10 days in the Carribiean people saying "your captain is great".
He was a man who earned respect, not demanded it. A great player, a great batsman and even greater captain.
Thanks for good times Captain , wished you'd have stuck around for a bit longer to lead the side at home for WC2011, but it wasn't' to be. You didn't have an easy task as the captain of Srilanka.
You weren't just a captain, you were an ambassador and inspiration to many youngsters no doubt. One of the most respected Cricket captain' s of the world.
Keep your chin up and show the world that you don't need a captain title to be the class act you are. There's still plenty of centuries waiting to be scored with your stylish strokes.
Good luck for the future Mighty Midget.
23 December 2008
28 weeks 1 day
For ur services as the captain. Wish you all the best in the future.
23 December 2008
5 weeks 4 days
Hard hitting article summing up the sad truths and how it has affected our players. The great Jayawardene became a victim sad 2 say. He was one of the finest captains and we were lucky to have him at the helm. Thanks to him we made great strides towards being the no1 side oneday building on the success of the Ranatunga era and he reignited the Sri Lankan bland. It is sad but we must admire his courageous and selfless decision which like he always did, put Sri Lanka first. Thanks loads Mahela aiya, all the best for the future and as a batsmen..Im sure the best is yet to come.
27 January 2009
2 weeks 1 day
Adding some bits for your brilliant article... I have seen in cricinfo mahela is 2nd highest on the list of players to maintain a high batting avg (62.00) during their captaincy in history of test cricket just after don Bradman.
And our success ratio in test cricket is much higher than ODI. So he should have consider remain as the test captain and hand over ODI and T20 format to somebody else.
Been sagakara is the suitable candidate for the captaincy spot, I don’t think it will make a hell of difference in our approach and effort of the team. Why? every time we watch a cricket match we can see every important decision made by mahela is after consulting sangakara and jayasuriya so I am pretty sure sanga will do the same. Having said that I think sangakara should give up his wicket keeping job if he wants’ to do a REALLY GOOD job in captaincy especially when our team is fielding. Beside dhoni's success run no other Successful captain is a bowler or a wicket keeper. It’s understandable because, a batsman who does not have any other special duty to attain beside fielding can concentrate and see the match situation well, comparing to a bowler of a wicket keeper. Even dhoni allows zahir khan, sachin and shevag to take control of the field.
PPL and especially media should realize just like players even teams will go under a torrid time in other words out of form. It's funny how this FORM comes with LUCK. If you analyze the whole ODI series you would see that. PPL say mendis and murali is out of form, but it would have been a different story if our fielders manage to grab those catches. And I mentioned this earlier, have to mention it yet again. How many times have you seen Indian batsman's near misses and scooping the bowl up and the catch is landing on no man’s land? Comparison how about Sri Lankan batsmen? even a well time shot goes straight in o the fielder’s hand. Blv me the term indian commentators mention as “fearless approach" of indian batsmen will sooner run out once the rubber of the green turns against them. Perfect example is our batting order.
21 January 2009
1 week 5 days
Good article Hilal.
"It baffled me how the TV commentators commended Anuruddha Polonowita on what a great job he had done with the pitch. Yet the captains at the toss clearly stated the importance of batting first."
--- Spot on mate. I made this point smoewhere earlier, if the team batting first just has to perform okay and hope that the second team to not have an excellent performance, and then is assured of a win, the pitch is poorly prepared.
It think Vaas (esp. seeing how useful maharoof's runs were in reaching reasonable totals), Malinga and Prasad should all be above Dilhara in the pecking order unless he can make a better case for inclusion.
Thanks to Mahela and good luck in returning to the sublime batsman we all know he is.
24 December 2008
8 weeks 2 days
Thank you Mahela, for your reign as captain of our nation's cricket team - for most of us, including myself, you will go down as our finest in our 30, or so, years of international cricket. It was a selfless act to resign your post when there are other, more pressing concerns that have contributed to our current position on the world cricket stage.
Hilal, thanks for your insightful and brilliantly written post mortem of Jayawardene's captaincy.
The stats
Tests: 26 matches, 15 wins, 7 losses, 4 draws; 19 matches, 8 wins, 7 losses, 4 draws minus Bangladesh
ODIs: 94 matches, 54 wins, 35 losses, 5 no result; 63 matches, 27 wins, 31 losses, 5 NR against the 7 major nations
I was a little surprised when cricinfo's statsguru revealed the above numbers, especially MJ's captaincy record against major nations - 50% winning record give or take a few points. It's probably reflective of the roller coaster ride that we have endured during his tenure - starting with a 2-0 ODI home defeat v Pakistan, and ending with 4-1 ODI home defeat v India, a sour home ODI defeat to England sprinkled with moments of great success, including being World Cup finalists and the Asia Cup champions. As of today, he has retained or regained test trophies against India, England, South Africa and the West Indies. Missing from the cupboard are trophies against New Zealand, Australia and Pakistan, the later of which he may be holding in the coming weeks. To have 4, and potentially 5, out 7 test trophies is, for me, one of the great testaments to his captaincy. It is why I regret that he has chosen to hand over both the ODI and test captaincy - I would have liked to see him keep the test role.
As Hilal has pointed out, his captaincy and the team's performance has been undermined by Ranatunga's inept administration, and of those that preceeded Arjuna, including the selectors referred to so aptly as muppets by Marvan A. I sometimes think that he didn't do enough to shelter his players from these nuisances, but quite possibly, Ranatunga's constant attempts to impose his will on the players were inescapable.
----- to be continued tomorrow -----
7 December 2008
5 weeks 1 day
Good points above panda. We didnt really excel under him. But we fought hard. I personally thought that Sanga would have been better when Marvan got injured. But SLC and Aravinda de silva, Ranatunga all of them were talking about Mahela as future captain when he made his debut. Favouritsm over colombo cricketers. Sanga is from Kandy no?
Hilal> Again another fine article!
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