Is Sri Lanka cricket becoming a plagued octopus?
Six uninterrupted years under the current administration have produced an environment where captains, coaches, selectors and players revolve like a carousel, while the Executive Committee remains the only immovable force in the system. Untouched, unmoved and utterly impervious to accountability. The results of this imbalance are obvious to anyone who cares to look.
Members inside the team may not feel it, but their body language is visibly proving that something is not right within. If not addressed promptly, it could grow to become a cancer
Consider this ongoing tour, a chance to test combinations, identify talent and lay the groundwork for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup at home. Instead, it unravelled before it even began. The attempted withdrawal from the tour by the players, justified under the guise of “security concerns”, immediately plunged the entire assignment into confusion. Then came the sudden ‘removal’ of Charith Asalanka, officially explained as “illness”. But in cricket circles the murmurs were different. Tactical blunders at the Asia Cup had left him exposed, and there were internal pressures concerning his leadership. The fiasco surrounding the attempted withdrawal only compounded the issue.
And what is SLC’s big solution to steady the ship? A return to Dasun Shanaka, the very man they ousted two years ago after declaring his leadership inadequate. Bringing back a previously discarded captain is not a masterstroke. It is not even a strategy. It is plain desperation disguised as decision making. Recycling leadership in the hope that something magically changes speaks more to the weaknesses of the administration than to any flaw in the individual. A board that cannot commit to a captain, nurture him and back him through difficult phases, is a board that does not understand long term planning.
The effects of this chaos were on display during the match against Zimbabwe, where Sri Lanka folded for a miserable 95. This was not a rare bad day. It was a symptom of a system that has forgotten the meaning of development. The lack of intent from the players was startling. They ambled around like schoolboys handed a chance to play with professionals. Dasun Shanaka, in his post-match comments, hinted at the troubling attitude within the group.
Dasun is popular among the public but not universally embraced in the dressing room. Not certainly now. Some players simply do not want to play under him. The signs were evident. One can understand differences within a team, but what’s impossible to comprehend is how they take the field baring their flaws so openly that even Pakistani journalists have begun questioning their body language at post match press conferences. A few behave as if they are larger than the sport itself, forgetting that the luxuries and privileges they enjoy exist only because of the game they now treat with such indifference.
Sri Lanka no longer produces cricketers of the calibre that once defined its identity. There are no Sangakkaras or Mahelas waiting to emerge. There is no Aravinda to change a match in a single moment, no Arjuna to steady a crisis and lead with such authority, no Jayasuriya to intimidate the world’s best bowlers and no Marvan to glue innings together. There is certainly no Murali or Vaas anywhere in sight. Even if we have, they have failed to evolve, resulting in the current status quo. What remains is a domestic structure that has undergone more cosmetic changes than actual reform. Tournaments are repackaged, renamed or reorganised, but the output remains largely the same. In fact, the talent pool appears to be shrinking further.
Beyond the lone Asia Cup triumph in 2022, which stands out like an isolated peak in an otherwise barren decade, there is little to celebrate. Sri Lanka have been passengers in global tournaments, more present than competitive and it look pretty obvious come February, Sri Lanka will end up scratching their heads once more thinking of another lost opportunity. They occasionally escape the group stages but rarely threaten the bigger teams. The question any responsible cricket board should ask is simple. Are we moving forward? The answer is painfully clear.
And then there is the matter of governance, or rather the lack of it. Corruption allegations have trailed this administration for years. Whether these claims have been proven or not, the shadow refuses to disappear. Transparency is a rare commodity at SLC as they have refused to fall under the Right to Information Act. Accountability exists only as a concept, never as practice. For an organisation entrusted with the nation’s most beloved sport and one of its wealthiest institutions, this absence of integrity is not merely problematic. It is catastrophic.
Sri Lanka cricket cannot endure another cycle of this inertia. Decline is not accidental. It is the direct result of mismanagement, outdated thinking and leaders who prioritise survival over progress. The solution cannot begin on the field. It must begin at the very top, in the boardroom.
The time for gentle criticism has long passed. Cosmetic reforms and polite suggestions will do little for a structure that is fundamentally broken. The sport deserves more than recycled captains, repackaged domestic tournaments and six years of administrative stagnation. It deserves direction, clarity and leadership that is willing to embrace evolution rather than cling to nostalgia and survival.
Until these changes, the national team will continue to stumble from one crisis to another. The next generation will inherit a legacy not of growth but of stagnation and missed opportunity. For a nation that still clings to the memories of 1996 and the golden era that followed, such a future is not merely disappointing. It is tragic.
Ultimately, the question that Sri Lanka cricket must confront is painfully straightforward. How much longer can the country pretend that endurance in office equates to progress on the field? The cricket will continue. The fans will continue to hope. But the sport will continue to pay the price. And the nation that adores it will continue to suffer the consequences. Sri Lanka cricket deserves far better than this. And it is time the boardroom realised it.