Is Kandy’s school cricket on the skids?
View(s):By Aubrey Kuruppu
A dispassionate analysis of inter-school and provincial cricket in Kandy over the last few months leads one to the inescapable conclusion that the standard is on the decline. Taking refuge in the monumental deeds of Muralitharan and Sangakkara will not help Kandy’s cause.
Over the last two years when Trinity was ruling the roost, these deficiencies were glossed over. It seemed that if Trinity was winning, everything was hunky-dory. Not any longer, Trinity has slipped from their pedestal and, in consequence, the weaknesses have been laid bare.
Not practicing against their own pacemen would mean that batsmen are underdone. - File pic
To date, Trinity has played nine games for one outright win and three near misses. On the other hand, they escaped on outright defeat once. These results would have been unimaginable a year or two ago.
The Rajans have a couple of outright wins over division two sides but had their record badly tarnished by Dharmasoka and Royal. The Antonians have lost to one of the best sides, Royal, and had a close call against St. Sebastian’s.
The Sylvestians were beaten out of sight by St. Peter’s whose form has fluctuated wildly. Kingswood has one outright win and two bad losses to Richmond and St. John’s Panadura,
Vidyartha has won twice but were battered by the Rajans and had a great escape against Kalutara Vidyalaya. .
A look at some of the totals achieved by these teams would suggest that the fault lies with the batters rather than the bowlers. Trinity is probably exempt as with the sun on their backs, batsmen such as Palihawardena, Chandragupta, Jayatunge and Wickramanayake have begun to churn out the runs.
Consider the following:
Trinity 109 vs Nalanda, 169 and 118-8 vs St. Joseph’s. 132 for 7 vs Mahinda, Galle.
St. Anthony’s 157 vs St. Sylvester’s, 111 and 140-7 vs St. Sebastian’s and 54 and 113 vs Royal.
Dharmaraja 91 and 116 vs Dharmasoka, 110-7 vs S. de S. Jayasinghe and 87 vs Mahinda, 134 and 106 vs Royal..
St. Sylvester’s 101 vs Dharmaraja, 123 vs Lumbini, 101 and 91 vs St. Peter’s, 88 for 7 vs St. Aloysius..
Kingswood 31-6 when rain stopped play vs Maliyadeva, 65 and 92 vs Richmond, 125 and 115 vs St. John’s, Panadura and 142 vs St. Thomas’ Matale.
Vidyartha 118 vs St. Anne’s, 108 and 102 vs Dharmaraja, 100 vs Royal Panadura, 134 and 130 vs P. de S. Kularatne and 108 and 44 vs Kalutara Vidyalaya.
To digress, one of the positive aspects is the presence of some good left arm spinners – Jayasinghe and Sudharaka (Trinity), Vithanarachchi (Dharmaraja), Mendis and Dissanaike (St. Sylvester’s). These bowlers have kept their teams in the hunt by restricting their opponents.
There is a glaring lack of quality new-ball bowlers. The over dependence on spin has been the result of this. The absence of good pacemen could also count when the top order batting is reviewed.
Not practicing against them would mean that batsmen are underdone.
Moving on to the provincial matches at the under 19 level, Central Province fared badly, Eastern Province, under normal circumstances, should have been a whipping boy. Yet, Central barely scraped home (93 and 96 for 8). Western Province North Outer beat the Central Province by 38 runs (Parabola Method). However the 183-run defeat at the hands of Western Province North (254 to 71) was particularly galling whilst not wishing to apportion blame, it behoves those responsible to see the writing on the wall and take remedial action before it is too late.
In this general malaise the effectiveness and efficiency of the district and provincial associations should also come under scrutiny.
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