Our Women’s T 20 team needs a complete revamp after the WC debacle. – By Sunil Thenabadu
Sri Lanka’s team’s performance at the T20 World Cup could be described as “not acceptable” a consequence of skill “failing us” after we were completely knocked out of the tournament .It is a pity for the Asian Champions to be classified as the worst out of the ten teams that participated, even performing worst than the minnows Scotland who has had a better record been a team that resisted against the better teams in their group. Sri Lanka have lost all of their four matches in the World Cup, hence obviously cannot advance from the group after coming into the event with the expectation they could go to semi finals after an impressive last 20 months having crowned as the Asia cup champions.
Since the last T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka had won series in England and South Africa, cruised through the World Cup Qualifiers in Abu Dhabi undefeated, and beaten Pakistan and India on their way to becoming Asia Cup champions. But Sri Lanka lost to all teams in the A group, those oppositions including defending champions Australia and Pakistan in the first week of the tournament, owing to overall underperformance.
“It was immoral playing through and through this tournament,” after Sri Lanka lost to India by 82 runs. “They’ve been playing poor cricket, that is not acceptable. We’ve been talking about it, we’ve tried to come out of it and we’ve tried various plans, but we’ve been fearlessly, freely doing things, which is owing to the fact that the skill has failed us when it had to be really important.”
Our top order batting is our strength, not had crossed 100 in any of their first three innings, managed just over 100 in the final match against the New Zealand women. Whether batting first or chasing, and their collective form has directly mirrored on their captain’s batting failure. Chamari has been dismissed in single figures in each innings for a total of ten runs in the first three matches but laboured to make over thirty in the final match yet not through her usual flamboyant manner. It is her worst return at a World Cup, stands blunt in contrast to the last two editions, in South Africa and Australia, where she scored over 100 runs in each event. Our players accustomed to some of those similar situations, but winning those moments and those appropriate situations, decision-making along with the skill wasn’t been backed up. The skills did not come through as in the Asia Cup. That win could be attributed to playing on favourable home conditions and fans cheering with our top order batting delivering
“Our preparation before the tournament was really good back home, having played on various types of wickets. The squad of fifteen selected did not spring any surprises with all sans the youngest Shashini Gimhani the fifteen year old mystery spinner was picked though she was not given a chance to play. All others barring Harshitha Samarawickrema. Kavisha Dilhari and Vishmi Guneratne still a teenager were below thirty years old. All other players were well over thirty three years old.The eldest was Udeshika Prabodhani who is thirty nine years old.It is seen that many selected were old and been representing Sri Lanka in T 20’s over a long length of time having played in over fifty T 20 matches.Unlike those players in other countries our players have failed to make big scores. Only a handful other than Chamari, Vishmi and Harshitha have scored fifties in previous games compared to players from the other countries where they had been consistent in contributing with the bat. The writer was a former sports journalist watched all the preliminary T 20 WC matches while residing in Brisbane has a profound knowledge on cricket . When a batsman comes to bat her records are shown in the telecast. Many players from other countries have proven batting records having notched several half centuries having played a fewer number of T 20 matches unlike those in our squad.
In this context our T 20 women’s team needs a facelift and revamp .All these over thirty threes need to be replaced by so many budding youngsters who are knocking at the door. There is not a single player from a Colombo girl’s school although SLC has encouraged some girl’s schools in donating cricket practice pitches. It is time the authorities take serious thought before the upcoming international series if Sri Lanka is to be in par with the other teams. Apsari Thilakeratne a person in the SLC who is given the task to identify talent from the outstations. She had aired her views that she had visited every nook and corner of the country in a talent search. It cannot be a successful venture as for the past few years the team comprises of the same names sans any new talents.
For Sri Lanka women’s team to dominate in the WC competitions it is pertinent that new talent is searched, in place of the older players who are ageing and are not delivering
Sunil Thenabadu in Brisbane email sthenabadu@hotmail.com
