Dimuth Karunaratne
For Dimuth Karunaratne, who led the Test team for five long years before handing the reins over to his deputy, captaincy was a job as well as a journey of self-discovery and a testament to the power of resilience and determination.
“It was never in my mind but when it was offered to me, I took up the challenge,” Karunaratne reflected, on his unexpected ascension to the leadership role of the Test side on February 5 of 2019.
The team was going through a lean patch, having conceded three straights defeats to England (3-0), New Zealand (1-0) and Australia (2-0). In addition to the external pressures of media scrutiny and fan expectations, there was also a sense of internal disunity and disillusionment among the players.
This was when the selectors turned to Karunaratne, a calm and composed player. After consulting a few people, he accepted the job and weathered storms, navigated rough seas, and steered the team through success and failure.
“I have led the ‘A’ team a few times before,” said the 35-year who was recently honoured by the ICC as a player in the 2023 Test team.
“Each time, my performance improved. But I was not even the vice-captain of the side, so there was no expectation whatsoever to lead the Test side. When it came, I took upon the challenge on the condition that I would do it my way. Looking back, I am happy it had helped the team.”
As captain, Karunaratne’s performances with the bat improved significantly as he scored 2,643 runs off his 30 matches at 49.86. As a player, his average stood at 37.24.
During his tenure, he instilled a culture built on integrity, comradeship, and freedom.
“I had no favourites in the team, treated everyone alike, and this is why the players rallied around me,” he asserted.
Karunaratne also championed a culture of empowerment, granting players the freedom to express themselves both on and off the field.
“I wanted to create the environment for people to share information and express themselves freely, on and off the field,” he explained.
For this, he drew inspiration from former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena and Indian great MS Dhoni whose calm demeanour and tactical acumen left an indelible mark on their approaches to leadership.
“I learned a lot from Mahela aiya,” he said with a great sense of respect to his senior cricketer.
“He is very calm on the field, where his man management and tactics were brilliant. Same with Dhoni, another cool-headed leader. They used different tones for different players. They can be aggressive in the dressing room but on the field, they are very calm. I followed them and it helped me to get the support of the players.”
Dhananjaya de Silva, his successor is different. His approach, Karunatane says is a bit aggressive.
“He has a very good game sense and tactics but he needs time to get used to leading the team,” he observed.
“Leading your country is quite different to leading a club side. His tone is also different, a bit more aggressive and I think it’s good to have someone who uses a different tone with the players now. The team needs a change”.
For Karunaratne, leadership is not just about wielding power or authority but also about empowering others to succeed, fostering a culture of trust and respect, and leaving the team in a better place than he found it.
“I think I have done it. The team is a better side than when I inherited it five years ago,” he said, with a sense of pride.
“I hope they will groom a future leader,” he said, of Sri Lanka Cricket.
“We have seen vice-captains come and go. That’s not ideal. If you look at other teams worldwide, they identify leaders early and groom them. Ideally, there has to be at least a four-year age difference between the captain and the vice-captain,” he explained.
Karunaratne led Sri Lanka in 30 Test matches, winning and losing 12 each and the rest resulting in draws. The team achieved their first-ever 2-0 series win over South Africa in his first series as captain, a feat that had eluded the team for decades.
“This remains as the high point in my tenure as captain. To become the first South Asian team to win a series in South Africa was remarkable and that, too, with an inexperienced team,” he recalled, with pride. “To beat them in South Africa, you need to be exceptional. They had some of the best players at the time–Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock and Dale Steyn in the side. To conquer them 2-0 with a young side was fantastic.”
Sri Lanka also finished fifh in the previous World Test Championship, but he would have been happier if he led the team to more victories.
After Sri Lanka conceded a crucial two-match Test series in New Zealand against the hosts last year, Karunaratne thought the time was right for him to hand over the reins to a new leader. The defeat eventually shattered Sri Lanka’s hopes of playing in that year’s World Test Championships (WTC). With a new WTC cycle to begin, he wanted to hand over the reins to his deputy, Dhananjaya de Silva, after the two-match Test series against Ireland the same year. But he was persuaded to stick around until the change of selectors ended his long tenure as Sri Lanka’s 17th Test skipper last month.
As he looks towards the last few years of his cricketing journey, Karunaratne remains optimistic about what the future holds.
“My main aim is to play 100 Tests and then to see how best I can get to 10,000 runs in Test cricket,” he said.
“But more than personal milestones or individual accolades, my greatest satisfaction is I have inspired others to dream big, to chase their passions with unwavering determination, and to believe in the power of teamwork and perseverance”.