Selectors find holes in coaching

Says need much more commitment from HPC and support staff to upskill players

After a fairly decent 2022, Sri Lanka started off this year with a series of defeats against neighbouring India. Having lost the T20 series 2-1, Sri Lanka conceded the ODI series 3-0. This included a record 317-run defeat in the final ODI. It was the biggest margin of defeat for any team in ODI history. Chasing 391, Sri Lanka was shot out for just 73 in 22 overs.

The defeats, though expected-given how dominatingly India has gone about their business when playing at home--still left a glimmer of hope that Dasun Shanaka’s men will rise up to the challenge and not surrender so completely.

Having maintained a 60-percent winning ratio in 2022 (see table below), Sri Lanka may have hoped for better execution of plans after a decent season at home. Sri Lanka beat South Africa(2-1), Zimbabwe (2-1) and even the mighty Australians (3-2) at home in ODIs and shared the three-match series 1-all with Afghanistan during the last 20 months.

But it proved a far-fetched dream as collective failure across all departments helped India emphatically steamroll the Lankans.

Sri Lankan batters were so weak that people started to believe the team would do better reintroducing some of the dropped seniors into the ODI format. Three former skippers--Angelo Mathews, Dimuth Karunaratne, and Dinesh Chandimal--were all repeatedly overlooked in the white-ball format as selectors continued to place trust in youngsters to build a future team. But with a World Cup just around the corner, their absence seems a significant loss to the batting unit as younger players have repeatedly failed to sustain their performances in complete contrast to their Indian counterparts.

Shubnam Gill, Surya Kumar Yadav, Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, and Mohamed Siraj have given the Indian side the x-factor, making them one of the top contenders in world cricket today. The same cannot be said about Sri Lankans Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Avishka Fernando or, for that matter, Wanindu Hasaranga whose lack of consistency has seen Sri Lanka spiral down at the start of this year's season.

The Sri Lankan batters’ weakness against seam and spin bowling is well-documented. With a large pool of support staff that includes coaches for specific roles, it’s puzzling how these talented players are still struggling to get their basics right.

Nissanka, for instance, has a tendency to play out lots of dot balls at the start of his innings in T20 cricket. Despite being in the side for close to two years, this issue hasn't been rectified. The selectors believe much more commitment is required from support staff and from those at the High Performance Centre (HPC) to upskill the players so they are more consistent.

“Are we responsible for this?" questioned Chief Selector Pramodya Wickremasinghe, whose committee is now in the firing line.

A report this week suggested that the National Sports Selection Committee has refused to accept the selector nominees sent by SLC despite them being recommended for another term on the basis of Board satisfaction during their previous 20 months in office.

“When you look at the report we sent to the SLC CEO, you will see what we have done over the last 20 months. We have picked the best squad available but they haven’t had the consistency. It’s the job of the coaching staff to work with players and to upskill them. Those questioning our qualifications must understand that we have done our job with integrity, without indulging in any malpractices and beside we have got what it takes to become selectors,” Wickremasinghe said.

In March 2022, the selectors gave a set of proposals along with the names of 34 World T20 hopefuls to the HPC to prepare them for the event held in Australia last year. Among those requests were to improve fitness levels according to skill demand, build game awareness, match-scenario practice with proper intensity, high-intensity net sessions, develop power-hitting and bat speed through power training, and training them on how to switch formats.

“We, as the national selectors, had given our suggestions on the preparation plan attached herewith (T20 WC 2022 - Preparation) to HPC well in advance prior to the T20 World Cup 2022, whether it was considered at the planning phase is questionable,” Wickremasinghe wrote in an email to SLC CEO Ashley de Silva.

“We have invested in a group of young and up-and-coming players looking at the next five to 10 years of SLC’s future, while most of them have performed at the international level, there are other areas that need to be addressed by the support group of the national team and HPC”.

Since Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, and TM Dilshan--three legendary cricketers with over 10,000 runs each in the format retired during the World Cup year in 2015, Sri Lanka had endured a tough run in the format with the year 2017 being the worst with 23 defeats to that of five wins in 29 games. The winning percentage was a meager 17.9. This included a home series defeat at the hands of visiting Zimbabwean team.

Among other proposals of the selectors was to commence bowling academies for seam and spin to develop up-and-coming bowlers at the HPC. The names of 32 players--16 each for a spin and fast bowling have been nominated but no action has been taken.

“The Selectors had proposed to commence Fast and Spin bowling academies (Spin and Pace squads) to develop up-and-coming bowlers at HPC, however, it does not seem that any form of commencement has happened yet,” Wickremasinghe wrote.

After the retirements of Muttiah Muralidaran and Rangana Herath, Sri Lanka has convinced itself that the holes left by these greats are hard to fill. Hasaranga emerged as a potential candidate but the recent

ODI series proved, that unless the conditions favour him, the opposition can easily negate his impact. He was wicketless in the ODI series. This is a major worry going forward as Sri Lanka is all but set to play the qualifiers to earn its place in the 10-team World Cup to be played in India later this year.

Yes, Hasaranga picks up wickets in the shorter format, when the batters are usually on a rampage. But does he have the skills to take wickets when the batters take minimum risk against him is the question being posed following his India performance.

The same can be said about the seam bowlers. They had some good spells, particularly Kasun Rajitha, but lacked consistency. After Lasith Malinga’s exit, do we have someone who could be relied upon to unleash yorkers regularly to the maximum effect? The answer is an obvious ‘no’.

SLC should surely evaluate the work of its HPC and the national team’s support staff to see whether there’s a return on investment from these people that hold specific coaching roles within the system.

Another area of concern is fitness. During the ODI series in India, Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara said on air that fitness is non-negotiable on the international stage. Sangakkara was part of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) that formulated the fitness criteria. When it was changed last year, fitness was compromised with skin-fold levels at over 100 in most players.

The strict regime was introduced by the former TAC headed by Aravinda de Silva and the selectors led by Wickremasinghe in order to raise the levels to international standards, but it was adjusted following pressure from all quarters, including former players.

Selectors are now calling SLC to return to the earlier formula introduced and deal harshly with players taking fitness lightly.

“Benchmarks were introduced which were aligned to the selection policy, good progress was made. However, this was withdrawn and handed over to the HPC, where they introduced a penalty system in reference to their player contracts,” the report reads.

“However, sadly with players not meeting required standards, no player has been penalized to this time. It also has to be mentioned that the current fitness standards have dropped considerably. The quarterly fitness testing year planner which was aligned with the player contract payments is in question if there had been complied with,” it reads.