An 'A' cricket tour by England has been concluded and the burning questions arising from it is whether the national selectors made the maximum use of it to unearth new talent and, to identify which players had the potential to take Sri Lanka into the next millennium.
By deviating from their original idea of keeping a squad of 16 to 20 players and exposing them in every game against the English tourists, the selectors only compounded their task by picking an unusual number of 46 cricketers in the nine matches.
By expanding their scope, the selectors can claim to have given everyone an opportunity to play. However, by doing so they were not being fair by those who failed in their first attempt to impress. In most instances, the players were given just one opportunity and then left out.
Only 11 players were given more than one opportunity in the five first-class matches. Of them Manoj Mendis, the nephew of former Sri Lanka captain and present chairman of selectors and manager of the national team Duleep Mendis, played in the most - four.
Mendis took three half-centuries off the England 'A' bowlers, but will need to show an appetite to go for big scores in excess of over 100 if he is to get any closer to gaining national recognition. Mendis is also on the heavy side and needs to trim himself down to size to be more flexible on the field.
Sanjeeva Ranatunga, who appeared in three matches and Mahela Jayawardene in two, were the only batsmen to score centuries off England 'A'.
The selectors' idea to bring back players of the recent past and provide them with an opportunity of reclaiming their places in the national side proved a wasted effort, for only Ranatunga and Chandika Hathurusingha made any sort of impression - but not good enough to get into the final 16 to South Africa.
By opting for experience in picking the side to South Africa, the selectors made the whole exercise of playing matches against England 'A' a seemingly wasted one. The figures provided here make a mockery of the selections, for heading the batting averages is fast bowler Pramodya Wickremasinghe, whose selection to South Africa came for much criticism in the press. He went wicketless in the only unofficial Test he played against England at Moratuwa, but recorded a career best 76 not out with the bat.
With opportunities being so limited, one cannot assess the potential of those exposed against England 'A', but among the few who caught the eye were Niroshan Bandaratilake, Arshad Junaid, Avishka Gunawardana, Pradeep Hewage, Hemantha Boteju, Tilan Samaraweera, Suresh Perera, Ruchira Perera, Dinuka Hettiarachchi and Nimesh Perera. There may have been many others, who for lack of sufficient exposure are not named here.
The selectors we understand, have an idea of forming a squad of around 20 players and have an ongoing pool in readiness against a call up for the national side.
England 'A' who came with a 16-member team, went home quite content with the outcome of their performances especially in the longer game where they beat Sri Lanka 'A' 2-0 (1 drawn) in the three-match unofficial Test series. In the one-day game however, they found that they were nowhere near to beating Sri Lanka 'A' losing all three matches. Success here could be attributed to the fact that the selectors appointed one captain (Ruwan Kalpage) to lead the side in the series, whereas in the 'Test' series, there was a new captain for each of the three matches.
Ben Hollioake, brother of England's successful one-day captain Adam Hollioake, distinguished himself as a player of whom a lot will be heard of in the future. Ben was a class above the rest of his colleagues scoring two consecutive centuries including a career best 163 to top the tour first-class batting with an average of 82.40.
Darren Maddy, the only other centurion on the tour, was the main run-getter accumulating 485 runs to finish second with an average of 53.88. He was a model of consistency getting past the fifty mark on six occasions in nine innings.
Left-arm spinners Ashley Giles and Dean Cosker troubled all the Sri Lankan batsmen with their flight and guile grabbing 42 of the 85 wickets that fell to the bowlers. Whether they can reap the same benefits on pitches in England is questionable. That England 'A' had as nearly half their team with players who had represented the under 19 side showed how much they have veered away from the past, when a player got an opportunity to earn an England cap only when he was in his mid-twenties.
Having two former England captains and current national selectors, Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting as manager and coach respectively, showed how much of importance the England and Wales Cricket Board attached to this tour. That the tour went off without any mishap despite the bombing at the Dalada Maligawa, was in itself an advertisement for touring teams showing certain apprehensions coming to Sri Lanka.
The British High Commission and the Sri Lanka Cricket Board should be complimented for convincing England 'A' to continue with the tour, which otherwise, would have had repercussions on future tours to this country.