Ponting, Sachin, Younus are great examples to our senior cricketers

Sports

The Sunday Times has decided to dedicate this coloumn to its readers so that they can comment about contents in our sports columns and features and also write their own thoughts on various sports with letters to the editor.

Sri Lankan team is currently doing very well under the captaincy of Kumar Sangakkara, especially in test cricket. Sri Lanka is a very good team. But in ODI’s and T20 they are struggling a lot. In fact test and ODIs are more important than t20, because it tests the skills level of cricketers.

Our team struggled in the Champion trophy due to lack of form of the top order & poor fielding. But the players like Mahela, Sangakkara, should concentrate more on test and ODI’s rather than T20. Great players like Sachin, Ponting, Younus Khan have retired from international T20’s to give the chance to others. But still they can play quite a number of T20’s at their domestic levels, tournaments such as IPL, Champions league and etc. Also they can earn a lot of money out of these tournaments.

The opportunity provided by these players helps a lot for their cricket. As an example T20 specialists like Cameron White, Abhishek Nayar, Yousuf Pathan, Umar Akmal, David Hussy are doing well in the international level. Players like Mahela, Sangakkara should do the same and give the opportunity to T20 specialists like Indika de Seram, Chinthaka Jayasinghe, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Jeevanantha Kulatunga who have been doing well in the domestic T20 matches.

It will also provide the chance for seniors to concentrate more on tests and ODIs and produce better results. It will help them to prolong their career in tests and ODI’s, because these two are the most talented batsmen Sri Lanka ever produced. They can also enjoy by playing T20 and earn money at IPL and other domestic tournaments. And hopefully will be the No: 1 team in test cricket and world champions of the 2011 ODI cricket world cup!

Dinesh Wickramasinghe
Maharagama.

Hitch in cricket selections

At the recently held Champions Trophy in South Africa, two of our well known ‘Big Players’ were Jayasuriya and Muralitharan. Jayasuriya, the world’s second highest scorer after Tendulkar could make only 34 runs in three matches, while Muralitharan, the world’s leading wicket taker in Tests (783) and One Day Internationals (512) appeared in two matches conceding 106 runs in 18 overs for just one wicket.

While things like these go on, many of our all round young talented and enthusiastic cricketers are on the bench! There is obviously a hitch in the selection of right players. Commitment alone is not enough, in addition to it consistency is more important and more so in all the departments of motivation, batting, bowling and fielding.I do wish, as a long standing follower of more than five decades of Sri Lanka cricket, the Selection Committee would make a sensible approach in healthy and wise selection to meet the demands of the present challenges of international cricket.

Dr. K.T.R. Ratnam,

287C, Hoe Street,
Waltham Tower,
London E 179 BG

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