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An analysis of present cricketing woes
By Daminda Wijesuriya
From the days of Mahadevan Sathasivam to Aravinda de Silva, batting had been Sri Lanka’s forte in cricket. Irrespective of what kind of a bowling attack that the opposing teams have had, Sri Lanka had the batsmen to contain them.

One might think that there is too much emphasis on past glory and certain people like to run down the present set of players with negative ideas. No! This is not a witch hunt to undermine present cricket, but a study of what has gone wrong down the line.

In the present digital world, it is numbers that do all the talking and here again numbers come into play at every turn in the game. Let's have a look at the table 1. Starting from the first series they played after Tsunami disaster, Sri Lanka's test record is not all that bad on surface. Sri Lanka has played 13 test matches and won six, three drawn and four lost.

At the bottom of the fifth and sixth columns of table 1, you find the total number of runs scored for and against Sri Lanka. In 13 test matches, Sri Lankans have scored 5765 runs while giving away 6013 runs. In a successful run of six wins out of 13 matches, figures should have been the other way round. Move couple of columns to your right. The story is there. Sri Lankan bowlers have claimed 220 wickets while their counterparts claiming only 180 and that has been the secret of their wins. Now consider the teams that Sri Lanka has beaten. It has been Bangladesh (four times) and West Indies (twice).

Explaining the strengths of Bangladesh cricket is a waste of time and words. The West Indies team which was beaten by Sri Lanka is considered as one of their weakest on tour for a long time. Even playing against such a depleted West Indies side, Sri Lanka was bowled out to 227 and 172 in the first test at the SSC, before being shot out to 150 in the first innings of the second test in Kandy. Both tests ended inside four days and the quality of cricket was nowhere near test standard.

If you remove the wins against West Indies and Bangladesh from table 1, it's shuddering to look at.
Against quality opposition, there are four losses out of seven matches without a win. Only 3074 runs were scored at 28..20 runs per wicket. Can these figures justify the reputation of Sri Lanka’s batting at present?

Speaking to the Sunday Times on 30th October last year, Sri Lanka skipper Marvan Atapattu voiced his displeasure of the poor show by Sri Lankan batsmen against weak oppositions. "If we look back, our batsmen have not clicked for some time" he said. "I don't think that the batsmen have performed consistently in the past few months and that's a big draw back" Atapattu said at Mohali, India, after Sri Lank lost the second ODI against India.

What Atapattu said five months ago is still valid. To understand what he said clearly is to look at the Sri Lanka's ODI record since last August. Sri Lanka have played 35 ODIs since then and has won only 14-. of them while there has been 20 losses. This is clear result of the batsmen failing. "In my belief, we should win ODI matches with our batting. That's why we prepare batting wickets at home" Atapattu said .at a time that Sri Lankan batsmen were struggling to find the momentum against a top level Indian attack in India.
What Atapattu said is correct. In the 1996 World Cup competition, Sri Lanka team was not bowled out even once. Nor Sri Lankan bowlers could bowl out their opposition. However it was the Lankan batting that saw them coasting to that memorable win without dropping a single game.

One can not compare the two batting line ups that Sri Lanka had during the 1996 world cup and the line up we have now in preparation for the World Cup ten years later. It seems to be unfair on players. But Sri Lanka is still producing quality batsmen and you will have to wait and see what Upul Tharanga and Chamara Kapugedara are capable of delivering at this level especially overseas. However, what are the coaches doing with Sri Lanka cricket when players are struggling to deal with top quality swing bowling?

During the recent test series against Pakistan, Everybody saw how difficult the Sri Lankans found it difficult to handle the swing bowling of Mohammmed Asif. Asif, a Glenn McGrath type of a bowler, got the batsmen to leave the ball thrice and hit the stumps.

This is the same type of bowling that Sri Lankan batsmen will have to face in England with the prevalent climate very condusive to swing bowling at this time of the year in England. When asked skipper Mahela Jayawardane, he said there's nothing wrong in the technique of Sri Lankan batsmen. However the results of the matches give us a different picture. Well, it's up to the coaches and batting stalwarts to see if there's anything wrong. The current Sri Lanka team has got the services of a head coach an assistant coach and what are they doing?

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