Sports

Whilst the national team battles to stay afloat in England some good news in terms of developing venues has brightened a somewhat bleak picture. First came the news that the Galle International Stadium was going to be renovated and rebuilt. Then the news that reached us was that the cabinet had approved Sri Lanka Cricket to manage the R. Premadasa Stadium.

More recently the news was that a deal had been struck with the Colombo Campus was also heartening. Six centre turf pitches and practise turf pitches are being constructed. It is a massive ground and located centrally, a wise move from both parties to develop the game.

Should a deeper analysis be done on the required infra structure for development of the game we find Sri Lanka are still in a primitive stage compared to England, Australia and South Africa. India, Pakistan and New Zealand have also taken giant strides forward in the last two decades. India in particular are cashing in on the thumping amounts of money the governing body in making and are pumping heaps back to develop playing areas.

Sri Lanka lags alongside the West Indies and ahead of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, amongst the test playing nations. Bangladesh too are progressing in this department as they have constructed two new International venues. One reason for West Indies Cricket collapsing from their lofty heights was the lack of grounds, practice facilities and with it the necessary Coaching. They depended on their natural talents like in the past, only to see other nations overtake them. Sri Lanka too is a nation that is loaded with natural talent, particularly in the batting department. But talent must be nurtured and should other nations do that better then Sri Lanka too will fall short in the future.

To this end, schools in particular and Clubs too have in their small way progressed to playing on turf surfaces. In the past twenty five years or so nearly a dozen schools have switched to turf playing surfaces and nearly as many Clubs too have done the same. Some number of neutral venues has also cropped up during this time. A rough estimate is that the island has around forty turf venues.

Compared to that with Australia, as it is the best cricket palying nation and because it has a population which is almost similar in numbers would have well over two hundred turf cricket grounds. Of course Australia is a vast stretch of land, in fact a continent. Sri Lanka cannot and odds not need to reach such numbers. This should have been priority since test status was granted. Maybe there was'nt sufficient funds then. But certainly since 1996 much more should have been done, as there is no turf cricket between Panadura and Galle, nothing between Colombo and Kandy and nothing between Colombo through Ratnapura to Badulla. How can cricket develop without young players playing on turf pitches regularly, from the age of ten? It cannot happen and other nations are overtaking Sri Lanka.