Excellent article. A truly
Excellent article. A truly enjoyable read. Thanks for that CA.

Just to add a couple of thoughts; First, I absolutely agree with you on the issues regarding politics in cricket (and sport in general) and corruption, etc.

We have gleefully mishandled and bungled up a well-oiled system to a point of lunacy and the sacking of Geoff Marsh might have (God forbid!) been the crowning glory of the present administration.. absolutely appalling. Sadly, I wouldn’t wait around for any valid excuses. Almost as farcical as footy managers getting fired after three bad outings.

The only thing I’d like to add to this discussion is this. I’ve been told by a couple persons (informed sources, I’m not sure) that the team itself is bitterly divided (especially since Sanga’s resigning). It was mentioned that there are rifts, alliances and power plays aplenty within the national team and not just in the administration side of things.

Now Dilshan is not the most appealing or eloquent poster boy of SL cricket. His favourite smile looks like he’s recalling fond memories of a particularly enjoyable dental appointment. But those ‘sources’ feel that he’s been doomed to fail from get-go.

Also, Dilshan ‘sporting’ an ego the size of Texas does not help his public image and he’s definitely not captain material. I’ll be the first to agree. On top of that, I’ve always thought of Mahela as one of the best captain’s we’ve every had. Not as articulate as Sanga (and his slouching doesn’t help!) but definitely has a degree in people and cricket as Mike Brearley did. So I think he’ll do a great job; although what it’ll do to his already miserable batting form is better left without speculation.

I think it’s easy for us ‘armchair pundits’ (I include myself in this category and am not being disrespectful to anyone here) to see one side of things. Sanga is well spoken (although someone seriously needs to ask him where he gets his Oxonian accent from) and he’s an amazingly talented cricketer with a natural flair that makes it an absolute treat to watch. Everything that Dilshan is not. Dilshan is a brutal bludgeoner of the ball with as much finesse or respect for the niceties of the game as Symonds did.

My question is this. Have we been truly fair to Dilshan? All his failings aside and the long shadow of the two former captains, have we truly considered that he might have been set-up for a fall? That it might not be fair to attribute almost all our cricketing miseries to his captaincy?

Until I was told of these divisions within the team and that some players might not be what they seem, I must admit that I had not given Dilshan that benefit of doubt. Now, it’s making me think if I had the entire picture before judging him.

It would certainly be interesting to be a fly on the wall of one of our team meetings.

If any of you actually got to this point and haven’t entirely lost your wits trying to make sense of what I’ve written, please accept my apologies. I didn’t mean it to be this long-winded 🙂