A nation hangs it head in shame

Oh dear. A cricket-loving nation hangs it's head in shame. On Monday, after a disgraceful and unacceptable performance, Sri Lankan cricket fans surrendered whatever slender hopes they had of winning the 2003 World Cup.

Sanath Jayasuriya's side can still qualify for the semi-finals. Indeed, they most probably will, assuming they beat Zimbabwe next Saturday.

They will have to pray that the Kenyans don't pull off another shock win and that the Black Caps don't win their remaining games against India and Australia.

But even if they do qualify, they hardly deserve a place in the last four. Moreover, they can only dream of progressing further - Australia and India are streets ahead.

Both Super Six matches have identified glaring shortcomings in the side, problems that the management and selectors have spent four long years trying to solve. They will not be easily overcome - the future looks bleak.

Currently, a quintet of senior players - Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas - are doing all the work. The rest can muster only sporadic performances of note. It's five against eleven and only individual brilliance is winning them matches.

Sri Lanka's mantra under Dav Whatmore has been teamwork but when your support bowlers cant bowl straight and the rump of middle order struggle to reach double figures then you are in serious trouble.

Amidst all the carnage, Vaas and Murali took five for 80 in 20 overs - a superb effort in the circumstances. The rest hemorrhaged seven runs per over and the fast bowlers - Prabath Nissanka and Dilhara Fernando - squandered any potential advantage of bowling first.

Jayasuriya defended his decision to bowl first, claiming it was the "right decision but the bowlers didn't put the ball in the right areas" and there was some truth in that assertion: India's fast bowlers may have created mayhem during the first hour when the ball showed a willingness to misbehave.

Amongst some of the dross served up by the young Nissanka and frustrating Fernando, there were a handful of deliveries that darted off the seam, providing some justification to Jayasuriya's controversial punt.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka have shown themselves to be a better side batting first, primarily because the bowlers, particularly the spinners, are better able to absorb the second innings pressure than an alarmingly fragile middle order.

The key to Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup triumph was the capacity of a powerful batting line-up to hunt down any target. Opponents were so fearful of their batting firepower that they bowled first even when not justified by the conditions. India paid a heavy penalty for that in the Eden Gardens semi-final.

But the current batting line-up is not in the same league. There is talent but the form of Mahela Jayawardene (16 runs in eight games), Russel Arnold and even Kumar Sangakkara, who may well be batting in the wrong position, has been dreadful.

These were the players groomed after the 1999 World Cup debacle but on the evidence thus far Sri Lanka would have been better served to persuade Roshan Mahanama to delay his autobiography "Retired Hurt" and Arjuna Ranatunga to swap his parliamentary robes for whites.

Indeed, had Ranatunga had been present then, at least, some of the tactical blunders would have been avoided. Jayasuriya's on field captaincy has been the source of ridicule throughout the tournament and the time has surely come for him to concentrate on playing rather than leadership.

Off the field, in the comfort of the dressing room, the decision-making cannot escape criticism either. Why was Jehan Mubarak picked ahead of the more experienced, more destructive and stronger minded Avishka Gunawardene? Perhaps his fielding is appalling but the suspicion remains that he was kept on the sidelines because of a personality clash with Jayasuriya.

And why was Mubarak then literally thrown to the wolves by being asked to bat at the pivotal number three slot in his first game of the tournament? Could not Sangakkara, who bats there effectively in Test cricket, be a safer bet?

And why was the run-less Jayawardene shunted out to bat at number four in the second over with the innings already in crisis? There could not have been a worse time for the 25-year-old to reclaim his form.

The decision to bowl first, at least, had a sound rationale; even it was a massive gamble that backfired spectacularly. The other blunders are deserving of very serious review. Who is making these decisions and why?

Whether Sri Lanka can pull themselves together in time for Saturday remains to be seen. By then they will at least know what they have to do. Traditionally they revel under the underdog tag but the suspicion remains that irreparable damage has been done.