Friday, July 12, 2002 Whatever happened to Sri Lanka? Before this tour of England you might have expected them to at least share the Test series and win the triangular one-day tournament. I certainly did. Yet they return home after one of the most disastrous tours in their brief history.

You had to pinch yourself to remember that this was the team that once lay third in the ICC Test Championship and sat comfortably in the top four of the one-day rankings. The batting line-up was the same one that had been so dominant in the previous 12 months. The captain and the coach were unchanged, as was the approach: stylish strokeplay backed up by slick fielding and consistent bowling. Sri Lanka, you suspected, were ready to launch a bid for greater status, instead they have spent the summer looking as sheepish as a team of Enron accountants.

This summer also presented Sri Lanka with their first full tour of England, and whatever you may think about the shift in the game's power base to Asia, all cricketers wait in expectation for a chance to shine at Lord's or any other of England's historic grounds. It would have been a memorable assignment had not Sri Lanka's players gone missing in action.

The first question tumbles out easily. Did Sri Lanka's summer turn with Murali's shoulder? And the answer is clearly yes. Without Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka's attack has been toothless and devoid of confidence. If there was any doubt about how much Sri Lanka rely on Murali then there cannot be any lingering. Murali is more than a magician with the ball; he is an inspiration and a talisman for his team. His presence exposes faults in the resolve of the opposition; his absence emboldens Sri Lanka's challengers. But to dismiss this failure as twist of fate is a dangerous analysis for Dav Whatmore and his team, because the truth is that there are deeper, more chronic problems that underlie this defeat.

Asia's history shows that its cricketers are at their best under captains who can inspire. Kapil Dev and Sourav Ganguly are India's motivators, while Imran Khan and Waqar Younis have blazed the trail for Pakistan. Sri Lanka, for their part, were strongest when Arjuna Ranatunga showed them how to strut the international stage. Sanath Jayasuriya is a charming man and an extraordinary batsman but he appears unable to get the most from his team when his own form has betrayed him. Most captains find their job harder in this situation, although Jayasuriya has found it particularly difficult. Sri Lanka are not spoilt for choice either, there is no obvious leader among the ranks.

Kumar Sangakkara, though, might have enough fighting spirit and a lawyer's brain to revitalise Sri Lanka one day, but for now he is raw. Another of Sri Lanka's ailments also afflicts him, which is their hapless form outside Asia. This is the team, let us remind ourselves, that won this year's Asian Test Championship and does a pretty good job of dominating cricket in Asia. One reason for Sri Lanka's poor record is that they have played few series outside Asia, but inexperience is not enough to explain their lack of competitiveness. This is a problem that Whatmore and Jayasuriya need to get to the root of. Dismal away form will certainly prevent them from achieving their dream of becoming cricket's top nation, and it is only a matter of time before the bad habits learnt outside Asia start affecting them on more familiar territory.

So Sri Lanka return home with their lions tails dangling between heavy legs, pride abandoned on England's fields. The future is much less clear than it was three months ago, and the year ahead looks bleak unless Murali returns quickly to bear the standard. But his brilliance and home comforts have masked Sri Lanka's ailments for too long. This is why failure is more instructive than success. Next year's World Cup is not one that Sri Lanka will expect to win.

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Kamran Abbasi, born in Lahore, brought up in Rotherham, is deputy editor of the British Medical Journal.

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