There is a better idea, drop
There is a better idea, drop Mathews from the team. 😀

Then make the golden boy Chandimal captain.

Mathews is the only player who is worthy of playing international cricket. However it is very clear from the body language Mathews does not want to captain this team, why? Because this is not an international quality team.

At best “best”, this team can play against 2nd Grade English county team, no more. It is not the players fault, we don’t have that standard of cricket within our domestic structure.

Yes as this author has
Yes as this author has suggested we should have batted with more attacking intentions, had we done that we could have scored at least 50 more runs.

As delan82 suggested I think Mathews could have batted one feet ahead of crease to counter the swing, however I don’t think Kaushal Silva can follow that strategy. At his height most of the time ball is slightly out of his reach, and that is why shorter batsmen tend to go with cross bat shots to reach the ball, making them aggressive batters.
So Kaushal is like a pig trying to fly, he should try to attack pull and cut anything short to him, if not he will not score many runs, he may survive but not going to make any difference.

It was a very good balling by English bowlers, but I think one batsman should have taken more aggressive approach to unsettle the length, because it is well known once Broad gets into his groove its going to be very very difficult to face him. But if one takes the challenge to him he usually gets disturbed as well.

Even on second innings with this swinging conditions I don’t see our batsmen surviving a full day. So nothing to loose at least they should try to salvage some pride by playing some shots.

@delan,
OMG,this is a new
@delan,

OMG,this is a new level of embarrassment. I’m starting to question, should we play this game any more?.

Yes of course it was taken out of context, however silly things like this should have never been spoken.
I presume Chandrashan Perera was hired to stop these things happening. Any way we are the laughing stock of cricket world now.

Where on earth we have got a top attack, Essex .. b****y Essex are killing our attack. This was supposed to be a practise game for Sri Lankans but by the looks it is other way around. Out of pity they declared.
If this was York or Lancashire like a team they would have literally killed these hopeless bowlers.

We don’t have an attack, we have a bunch of guys who runs in and throw the ball, luckily sometimes you get a wicket here and there. Only Herath can ball to a plan. If you look at the last two years what happened, we go out there with a plan, if that does not work our players can’t change it on the ground. They don’t have experience and cricket nous as well.

We have talent of course, but not to play international cricket.

It’s is a good thing that
It’s is a good thing that rest of the world do not take Sanath seriously.

Got out below 300 against a balling attack lead by a school boy.

One of the best bowling attack could not dislodge Essex openers for 20 odd overs.

We have got “Talent” yey….

@Beliya,
Rugby analogy into
@Beliya,

Rugby analogy into cricket does not work any more for the simple reason, cricket is average man’s game and rugby is posh man’s game. Some people wanted to play rugby in Hambanthota, but I’m afraid that game would fit Hambanthota people’s culture, it could easily end up as a brawl. Only Colombo and Kandy plays rugby and the top schools and their followers who are upper middle class and they would not mind paying few bucks to get into a sevens tournament. Rugby 7 players are not paid as same as 15s, further 7s tournament only lasts 2-3 days, so I don’t think rugby analogy would fit in here. If you happen to know Trinity college or Royal college rugby budget, you would have not brought this rugby analogy. It is marketed for a different class of people not for lay public.

In 70-80s cricket used to be the posh gentleman’s game, when Wettamunis,Tennakoons,Madugalle played. However now it is not the same story.
So who are the target audience is one of the first questions to be answered before starting this kind of an enterprise, and this is where we have the problem.

Again South Africa tournament also based on their big cities, so can attract people.Whatever tournament we play it will only work in Colombo.

There is a better alternative, SLC should start a school cricket T20 tournament. Only elite schools will eventually get into it, and followers will engage and players do not need to paid heavily. People will follow their school because we have got a “lot” pathetic of old boy school followers who are 60 years old but still can’t see beyond school gate.
This is why provincial tournament do not bring any enthusiasm from people, there is nothing for them to cheer about.

In an ideal world will power can solve problems, but we live in a world where money talks.

Good analysis of the problem,
Good analysis of the problem, but there is a small confusion.

Financing this project how do we do that? High quality comes along with a high price tag.

If SLC to get local companies as franchises, how many companies would come forward? Out of those companies how many companies could buy good quality players.

This is modern day gladiators we are talking about, to get this tournament going we need AB,Gayle,Pollard, alike big show runners. Our local franchises I highly doubt would invest on such risky show given the current status of our economy, and these players have better options to consider.

I doubt even they could hire Sanga/Mahela back, because they sell for a higher price internationally. Forget about players, can these local franchises bring in some “cheer” leaders, that can bring people to the ground.

IPL,BigBash,BPL,…. list goes on where are we, at the bottom. It is mainly due to the fact that we have the smallest economy.
Sri Lanka GDP $99 Million
Bangladesh GDP $577 Million no need to even talk about others.
Carribian league runs mainly because they compete as different islands, making more of a competition and interesting for local people than running it as a single country.

Whatever tournament, playing these games around the country is as stupid as it gets in my opinion. We did this mistake and now paying the price big time.
Apart from R.Premadasa I have never seen a full house cricket ground in Sri Lanka. We built one in Hambanthota, how many international matches we played there during last two years, less than a dozen??

It is not economically feasible to have these games outside colombo. People do not go to ground anymore, we don’t have the metropolitan living culture as in other countries. Even in Bangladesh their jam packed metropolitan life style suits this kind of events, not in Sri Lanka.

No matter how optimistic I try to think, I don’t see a way out. We were too late to think ahead, now we’re about to extinct.

@Gaja48,
why do you think
@Gaja48,
why do you think both Thiri and Chandi were swapped around, but not Mathews. Because compared to Mathews these two were unable to get settle in their roles at any position after nearly 6 years. For a world class batsman it does not matter the format, the position where ever just look at Kohli, just goes out there and bat.

Excuses like not playing higher or lower does not really justify these two players international mediocrity. After 6 years nobody knows who these two are apart from Sri Lankans. I really doubt English people would be exited to go and buy tickets in hope of seeing some batting from these two batsmen.

Statistical jargon is not required to prove this point. Ian Chappel who does not have anything to do with our players simply said it, “move on” neither of these two don’t have got the metal to make it as a world class batsman.

It is a shame that we don’t have young batsmen who can step into international cricket at the age of 19 any more.

This team is again looking like Mathews and his 11 friends team. However lets see how Kusal Mendis and Dananjaya goes about their business if they get a chance.

Mr Abeysinghe, Why exactly do
Mr Abeysinghe, Why exactly do you wish that West Indies become kings of cricket again ?
Is it because you subconsciously admit that we don’t have enough talent to become kings? ever…??

There is no point of talking about these two batsmen, if they are the best we have, it is going to be tough times ahead.

Ian Chappel hit the nail on the head, it is time to move on. That is why Aussies don’t complain about the retirement of Ponting,Clarke,Hussey but we still cry about two players who retired two years ago.

Indeed we are strange people, we have to respect that strangeness

Mathews and his friends went
Mathews and his friends went to the world cup, they had a nice time out there and came home.

Why these “OFFICIALS” cry out.

Outcome could have not been any different even if we had Bradman in the selection committee.

@Delan & Suren,
This is
@Delan & Suren,

This is again sending our players to the slaughter house like what happened in 5 ODIS against India just before the world cup in Australia.

I think some admins are milking the cow here, Bangladesh tour can make some revenue due to their huge population and broadcasting rights.

There is a good chance we would loose against Bangladesh now and I’m concerned about these players mental health. They could be scarred for their lives.

It’s high time now the current players raise their voice against these rubbish tours. If we do terribly loosing by innings against England that could easily become the last time we travel there to a long time to come. It’s just a matter of time when Bangladesh takes our spot on the cricketing calendar.

Do we have a sports psychologist, I mean a professional one?