Sri Lanka need a cultural revolution in the shorter formats

Sri Lanka’s belief that they have declined and that it happened after the retirement of Sangakkara and Jayawardena fails to shed light on the actual causes behind Sri Lanka’s poor performance in the shorter formats. This is also the reason why the poor show is chalked up to the lack of fitness, discipline, and dedication of current players for people believe that the decline is a result of the change of personnel. But the truth is that even if the current players and former players are to swap time periods, the outcome would still be the same.

If the current trend continues, Sri Lanka would soon have a tough time competing with even associate teams. Most of these associate teams play more white-ball cricket than red-ball cricket and their players grow up being coached skills relevant to the shorter formats. In Sri Lanka, however, players grow up learning how to play Test cricket and, in a few years, it will not be a surprise to see Sri Lanka being lapped by associate teams.

Fixing the domestic system is advocated as a solution by all and sundry to Sri Lanka’s predicament. Though a revamp is long overdue at the domestic level, this will not be enough to improve Sri Lanka’s fortune in limited-overs cricket.

The island needs a change to its cricketing culture to do well in white-ball cricket. Sri Lanka’s stagnant cricket culture could see players with modern skillsets being either forced to play conservatively or being sidelined altogether in favor of orthodox players right from the school cricket level. Hence, the change should be effected from the ground up. The shakeup should start from the grass-root level. What Sri Lanka need is a cultural revolution.