Arthur says having to qualify for T20 World Cup ‘unacceptable’
Sri Lanka’s T20 performance is so bad that they must play a qualifying tournament to earn a spot for the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in India in November 2021.
This situation, according to team head coach Mickey Arthur, is not acceptable for a team which won the title seven years ago. Sri Lanka clinched the T20 World Cup in 2014 beating India but has since shown a steady decline.
“Our team goals are very simple,” Arthur has said in a wide-ranging interview with cricinfo. “We’ve got to qualify for the T20 World Cup this year. We should never, ever be in the position of having to qualify for any event. That, for me, is unacceptable.”
Sri Lanka are currently ranked ninth in T20 internationals, the lowest they have been. And out of the five games they played under Arthur’s watch, Sri Lanka have won just one game, losing the rest.
Arthur says that Sri Lanka needs to be consistent in white-ball cricket. “I want to see our white-ball team develop to be a threat at any world event,” he says. “I want us to be able to beat anybody on our day. But I want us to be consistent so that our best and our worst are a lot closer together.”
“In terms of qualification for the 2023 World Cup, we have started on the back foot,” he also says. “We lost our first three games to the West Indies, and we also got a two-point penalty for a slow over-rate. We can’t let that happen”.
Sri Lanka ranked eighth in ODI cricket, a format which they dominated for years since winning the World Cup back in 1996. They were also the losing finalist in 2007 and 2011 in the 50-over World Cup and reached the finals of the T20 World Cup in 2009 and 2012 before winning the title two years later in Bangladesh.
“First and foremost is to develop the player,” Arthur says. “I want to be sitting in my lounge in three years’ time watching Oshada Fernando, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis and whoever it is, score runs and score consistently, knowing that we’ve given them a base.”
To achieve consistently good results, Arthur emphasizes a no-compromise attitude towards fitness.
“Runs and wickets are always going to be the selection criteria, but by being fitter and stronger, you give yourself a better opportunity to bring in match-winning performances,” he says. “I’m all about match-winning performances. That means when a guy gets to 40 or 50 in these conditions, he’s got the fitness to get us a hundred. Now when he’s getting a hundred, he’s starting to win games. When a guy gets through five or six overs, and he’s got them on the ropes, he’s got the stamina and the ability to bowl those one or two extra overs. When it gets to five minutes to 6pm in a game and [Lasith] Embuldeniya is coming around the wicket to a No. 9 or 10, our silly point and short leg are aware enough to take the catch that’s going to change the game”.
After being criticised heavily for lack of match fitness, SLC recently hired Grant Luden as a trainer in a bid to put more emphasis on player fitness and are on the lookout for a Lead Physiotherapist for the overall management of injuries.