CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

The Sri Lankan cricketers disappointed their legion of fans with a performance that could be best described as pathetic in the World Cup cricket tournament now in progress in England.

Being the world champions and with pride to protect, the cricketers were expected to give a better performance. But they failed to do this and the end result was that they were spun out of the tournament.

In this debacle which was a calamity for the game in general, the whole team and The Management must take the blame and not one individual, because it must be understood that cricket is a team game.

Many stories are being tossed about regarding the Sri Lankan cricketers. It is said that some of the cricketers were having late nights, there was dissension in the team and that the captain and vice captain were not seeing eye to eye.

But Manager Duleep Mendis in an eve of match interview against Kenya has denied these rumours as a figment of the imagination.

The cricketers were on the chopping blocks after their shocking and dismal effort against the Indians in Taunton, which game they were expected to win and keep their hopes of entering the super six alive.

But when the Lankans won the toss and sent the Indians in and after Chaminda Vaas bowled opener Ramesh with a beauty of a delivery that pitched middle and knocked back the off stump, what one saw from there onwards was a leather hunt.

The Lankans were chasing leather with Ganguly and Dravid taking the attack by the scruff of the neck.

Both batted intelligently and sensibly with ease and none of the bowlers had it in them to dismiss them. Ganguly and Dravid were simply magic on that day and nothing that skipper Ranatunga did could dislodge them until Dravid was run out.

When it rained fours and sixes when Ganguly and Dravid were at the wicket, what was expected was a similar effort from the Lankan batsmen considering that the wicket was a batting paradise. But for Aravinda de Silva who made 56 and Ranatunga 42, the least said about the spineless batting by the rest the better.

Sanath Jayasuriya who was voted the 'Most Valuable Player' in the previous tournament in Lahore, started the slide for Sri Lanka by running himself out. There was absolutely no necessity for a run. And with his dismissal went any chance of Sri Lanka even getting close to sniffing at the Indian total.

The topic of conversation after the Indian debacle was whether Ranatunga did right in sending in the opposition. It was apparent that while the game progressed the wicket and the conditions were ideal for batting.

Even the commentators opted for the team winning the toss to put the opposition in. But it was later proved that even the commentators had boobed. Let it be understood that no cricketer or even a curator could tell for sure how a wicket would play. Although the curator knows what goes into the preparation of a wicket, he can never be spot on and say how it would behave. And it is a pity that Ranatunga had to learn a bitter lesson.

Sri Lanka's tumbling out of the World Cup certainly deserves to be probed as to what and where we went wrong. In defence of the cricketers it must be said that while a majority of cricketers of the other participating teams have experience in playing in English conditions - they play in the county or league circuit - the Lankans have none in these circuits. Ask any cricketer and he will tell you that unless you have experience in playing in the varying conditions that is England, it is not easy to get accustomed to.

The shocks of the tournament so far have been the shocking win by Zimbabwe over one of the favourites South Africa and the diving out of hosts England and Bangladesh beating Pakistan.

Some Englishmen and a section of the gutter press there must be hiding their heads in shame now that England have been knocked out. A section of their media, dug up garbage where the Lankans were concerned in an attempt to psyche them and the other teams so that their team will sail through.

But what has befallen England and its cricket is a calamity. It was England that gave the game to the world. How they must be yearning to lay their hands on the World Cup that has been evading them for so long. England's defeat was poetic justice, Sri Lanka's was a downright disgrace.