Sri Lanka’s cricket administrators, selectors and everyone who matters including the country’s political hierarchy have finally run out of patience with Lasith Malinga’s indifferent performances since of late for his country’s national team and have taken a collective decision to send the star bowler a strong signal about his future with the Sri Lanka team by dropping him for the forthcoming Bangladesh tour.
Informed sources told “Daily Mirror” that a lot of new changes will herald the new year for Sri Lanka team following a crucial meeting of top level officials of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), where some radical decisions had been taken. Among them was a decision to put the performance of several other senior players of the team under the microscope and an appraisal of the team’s massive support staff all of whom are paid lucrative salaries.
Following Sri Lanka’s 3-2 loss in the ODI series, the officials had felt that the team’s performance was extremely below par and analysed that Sri Lanka could not do much worse, even without the misfiring seniors. They have wanted new blood infused into the system through a gradual rotation system of resting seniors and trying out new talent in their place.
Malinga’s pathetic bowling and fielding had been a main topic of concern and SLC President Jayantha Dharmadasa had reportedly communicated the decisions taken in consultation with the national selectors to the national team members and support staff.
Sources said that Dharmadasa had phoned the team manager after the ODI Series and had spoken to each member of the support staff to convey SLC’s concern. Among those in the front to face the firing squad are said to be the batting coach Marvan Atapattu and fielding coach Ruwan Kalpage.
“What can you say about Sri Lanka’s batting and fielding performance? Who is responsible if the team fails? What is the point of having all these coaches, paying them huge salaries if they can’t do their job properly? It is time that SLC takes these people to task. All this time, they were enjoying big perks and having an easy time. Now they will be required to prove themselves. If not, SLC will not hesitate to show them the door” said a top SLC official.
There are strong indications that SLC will take drastic steps to reduce the support staff of the team and the players will be asked to get the maximum from the coaches. SLC is reportedly spending nearly Rs. ten million monthly on the salaries for coaching staff and a figure around Rs. Five million monthly for the Sri Lanka team support staff.
SLC will mount a serious attempt to secure a place in the proposed ICC Test championships, and have felt that the team will simply be not able to achieve that goal unless some drastic changes take place in the team.
In the plans for 2015 World Cup in Australia, Sri Lanka might look to leave out some seniors including Lasith Malinga and Thisara Perera as their alleged lack of commitment has not impressed the selectors.
Malinga’s lack of fitness has also been major worry for the Sri Lankans, sources said. Malinga reportedly dodges most of the fitness regimes citing his knee injury and had reportedly refused to look for other methods of fitness. SLC officials had been of the view that Malinga’s main interest was playing in the lucrative T20 leagues such as the Indian Premier League, Caribbean Premier League and the Australian Big Bash. They felt that he was playing in the national team merely for the sake of avoiding a public outcry against him.
Meanwhile Thisara Perera who has also been erratic in his form had requested SLC to join the Australian Big Bash tournament which is currently underway, but the SLC had refused to issue a No Objection Certificate (NOC) which is pre-requisite to play in any overseas domestic tournament.
SLC Sources said that chief national selector Sanath Jayasuriya had objected to Perera being released as he had failed to perform up to expectations against Pakistan. Perera had instead been asked to stay back and play the forthcoming limited overs series against the visiting England “A” team in order to improve his bowling ahead of the Bangladesh series, Asia Cup and the ICC World T20 in the next two months.
At a meeting Perera had with SLC officials, Jayasuriya had reportedly warned Perera severely to work on his bowling. Jayasuriya had felt that taking instructions from national bowling coach Chaminda Vaas and then taking different instruction from the other SLC Coaches has left Perera confused and at the mercy of international batsmen. However, Malinga’s scenario is different as he reportedly does not take instructions from Vaas and shows an indifferent attitude towards the greatest pace bowler Sri Lanka has produced. (Channaka de Silva)
Source: Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)
