Give Tillakaratne an ultimatum

The Sri Lankan Test captaincy today became a contentious issue because of the national selection committee's policy of continuing with two captains. The national cry is for one captain for both Test and one-day internationals.

If the selectors are going to veer away from that policy and make a change it is certainly not going to come ahead of next month's Australian tour. The tour is not one that the selectors are going to try their hand at experimenting with, especially with the captain. They would rather go with proven ability and experience because they are dealing with the best side in the world. If at all they need to make the change it is most likely to come in the series after Australia when Sri Lanka are due to tour Zimbabwe.

Until recently the two oldest cricketing nations England and Australia pursued the policy of two captains. But circumstances have now forced them to revert to one captain.

England had Nasser Hussain for Tests, and Michael Vaughan for the one-dayers. But Hussain resigned after the first Test against South Africa last summer and the captaincy passed onto Vaughan.

A similar transition took place with Australia where Steve Waugh, the Test captain, retired from the game at the end of the Sydney Test against India a fortnight ago. The Test captaincy automatically passed onto Ricky Ponting, who was made Australia's one-day captain after Waugh was dropped from the squad ahead of the 2003 World Cup.

If Sri Lanka were following the Australian style of captaincy this issue would not have arisen. The Australians first pick their team, and chose the captain from it. Thus there is no room for a player to be in the squad solely for his captaincy. He has to be worthy of his place in the team.

If one follows the Australian method, then, on present form, Hashan Tillakaratne will find it extremely difficult to find a place in the Sri Lanka team. Much pressure is being heaped on the selectors largely because Tillakaratne has failed with the bat in his last two series against West Indies and England and, for his play-safe attitude as captain.

The issue of replacing Tillakaratne as captain became a complicated one for the selectors. He won the final Test against England by an innings at the SSC, a victory that gave Sri Lanka the three-Test series 1-0. The first two Tests were drawn with Sri Lanka being the dominant team.

With such a convincing win, it is not fair to drop Tillakaratne from the Test captaincy just like a hot potato, regardless of whatever shortcomings he has as a captain. Tillakaratne has been his country's batting saviour on many occasions since making his Test debut against Australia at Hobart 15 years ago. The majority of his 11 hundreds and 19 half-centuries from 80 Tests have been made in times of adversity.

The best way to tackle such a situation is to give Tillakaratne an ultimatum before the Australians series and ask him to decide on his future. The selectors need to tell him that, regardless of the outcome of the series, they will definitely change the captaincy for the Zimbabwe tour with the future in mind.

Tillakaratne at least knows where he stands. He could make the selectors' job much easier by stepping down from the captaincy at the end of the Australian series and continue to serve the Test team as a batsman where his experience will prove invaluable. But he needs to get plenty of runs under his belt to do that, because of the pressures being brought on by the youngsters following the success of the Sri Lanka A team.

If the selectors are not going to chance their arm with the captaincy, there is every likelihood that they will go with tested and tried players for the series against Australia, which means that any chance of experimenting with youngsters will be put on hold until after the Australian series.

With the on-going provincial tournament not finishing until February 14, six days before the start of the five one-dayers against Australia, the selectors, in all probability, will name a squad of 15 players straight away. It would become meaningless if they were to follow the usual practice of picking a large pool and then from it name a squad for the one-day series. None of the national players will be available to attend training or practice because all of them are involved with the provincial tournament.