WZRD
Dasun Shanaka is set to be named Sri Lanka’s new men’s limited-overs captain, replacing Kusal Perera who himself had only had the job since May .
The captaincy switch is only partly a consequence of on-field performance. Although Sri Lanka have comfortably lost all three series that they played under Perera, the board and selectors have replaced him after he was deemed to have played a central role in the contracts standoff between the players and board, over the past few months.
Disappointed to hear Shanaka is going to replace KJP as captain who was praised by none other than the coach for his leadership skills. But according to cricinfo a reason for Shanaka’s appointment as captain is because Shanaka has signed the contract whereas KJP stood firm with others. Obviously Shanaka did it eyeing the captaincy giving away the collective decision not to sign by the players & selectors fell for it. Shame on Shanaka, a blacksheep?
There is no question on branding Shanaka as the blacksheep. I think the two past captains Mathews and Dimuth should be blamed (mainly Mathews) for organizing a loosing battle with the SLC and forcing the innocent youngsters to join them. I am adding below a comment I posted in another place which explains the subject matter.
I don’t think both Mathews & Dimuth were not considered for the white ball teams because of their ages. Mathews and Dimuth were the seniors who initiated a clear losing battle with the SLC & objecting for their contract terms and the criteria applied. Although they mentioned there was no transparency in their contracts, we all know that the real reason behind was the slashing of their contract sums. I don’t think that pay cuts imposed for both were unreasonable, considering the very poor performance of SL teams (overall) in all 3 formats (after 2015). Therefore the former two captains had to take a major part of the blame, hence deserve the proposed salary reduction. But not realising that, Mathews got hold of his lawyer friend and started a battle with the SLC.
The worst part of their battle was that they forced all the youngsters to join them. And majority of the youngsters didn’t have a good reason to join the battle as most of them were given quite reasonable offers considering their very little or no experience (internationally).
Performance & fitness criteria were much needed requirements for the annual contracts. If Mathews (and Dimuth) were objecting for other criteria they should have first signed the contract and made an appeal or discussed the issues with the SLC in a proper way. But Mathews (also Dimuth) being past captains gave an awfully bad example to every youngster in the squad by organizing this battle.
Now due to this unprofessional behavior of the two past captains it will be a difficult situation for the SLC to include both of them to the white ball teams as it will only result in a major split in the team.
Even if SL team with the yougsters looses few future matches as cricket fans we should not be disappointed as it will take few more matches for the selectors to pick the right team combination with these younger players.
I am not at all upset at the way we lost all the matches in England, when I see (today) how the first XI Pakistan (ranked no 6) team is performing so poorly against a totally inexperienced England XI. I think our team (ranked no 9) did better that Pakistan, of course with the England first XI.