All players should rally round Arjuna in bid to retain World Cup (10 February 1999)

10 February 1999

All players should rally round Arjuna in bid to retain World Cup

Premasara Epasinghe

Post-Mortems does not revive the dead. But, they throw some light to the cause of death. After the disastrous tour of Australia the Sri Lankan cricketers, who participated in the Carlton-United series returned home with sour memories. They have a challenging task ahead. Therefore, they must prepare early for the World Cup 1999. Under the astute leadership of Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka annexed the World Cup in 1996 and the entire team brought honour and fame to Sri Lanka. So it's the duty of all players to rally round Arjuna for a repeat performance. Undoubtedly, Sri Lanka will be the most experienced side in the World Cup 1999. You may remember, in 1995, Sri Lanka lost to Australia, when they toured down under in the Test series and one-day internationals. This defeat made the Sri Lanka team a determined side. What happened next? They became world champions and went on to win many more trophies. This is the lesson that our cricketers and the cricket management should learn from the Carlton and United-Tri-Nation debacle.

It is heartening to note that there is no ill-feeling between the two countries - Sri Lanka and Australia, after a controversial and prickly tour. The experienced and dedicated cricket manager Ranjit Fernando, through his personal charm and public relations must have in no small measure contributed in diplomatically sorting out the problems and any scars that may have been there, between the teams in the past. We must remember, cricket is not a war. The friendly relations of the two countries - Australia and Sri Lanka, should always prevail. The game of cricket should help the two countries to enhance their friendly ties in a big way. This should be the ultimate philosophy of this noble game.

Today, we will discuss fast bowling. In boxing, the biggest draw is the heavy weight bout. In cricket, the fast bowlers have the greatest box-office appeal. It is extremely exhilarating to watch a man run upto the wicket from 40 to 50 yards away and hurl a ball down somewhere in the region of 100 miles per hour. I can still picture that great West Indies fast bowler, giant sized Wesley Hall, running up to the wicket in rhythmic style with lightning pace to bowl at my Nalanda opening partner Sarath Silva, at the Sarvanamuttu Stadium, nearly four decades ago.

In a game of cricket fast bowlers play an important and a very vital role. One of the greatest weapons of a true fast bowler is the fear he creates with his great pace.

Sri Lanka cricket authorities should consider it as a priority to select two or three seam bowlers and pacemen to partner Chaminda Vaas. I personally feel that a fast bowlers pool or a clinic is the answer for this. I am sure, that former Test-players like Rumesh Ratnayake and Asantha de Mel will be able to help them. Some of the names that come to my mind for a "Pool" of this nature are Ravindra Pushpakumara, Mario Vellavarayan, Champaka Ramanayake, Sajeewa Chanaka de Silva, Eric Upashantha, Duleep Liyanage, Indika Gallage, Suresh Perera, Ruchira Perera, Nuwan Soysa, Ranga Yasalal, Ishara Amerasinghe, Hemantha Boteju, Pulasti Gunaratne, Mohammed Rushdi, Prabath Nissanka, J.C. Gamage, L. Hannibal, Vajira Ranaweera and Rasika Priyadharshana.

The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka will be better equipped to name any other pacies that should be included in this 'pacies' pool.

Fitness is very important to a cricketer. A paceman undergoes a tremendous amount of exertion. You must be physically hardened to the task. There is absolutely no purpose in selecting an injured player. Only genuine, physically fit pacemen should be selected and they must not select players who fall by the wayside during a tour, when they are selected while nursing injuries.

The aim of the bowler, whether he is fast, medium or slow is to beat the batsman. To do this, two factors are vital - length and direction.

In swinging the ball, the bowlers will have to learn the time honoured art of keeping the fingers and the wrist behind the ball. The most difficult ball to play is the length ball that pitches on the off-stump or slightly outside the off-side and moves away. Even with one hundred percent good judgement, you are committed to play this ball. This is one aspect to which the Sri Lanka cricketing authorities should draw their attention early and the other priority is the fielding and teaching them the basics of running between the wickets.

It is very sad to see our dashing left hand opening batsman Sanath Jayasuriya, getting hit below the arm guard and suffering from an injury. I understand he will be out of action for at least two months. I wish him a speedy recovery.

I was surprised to see Jayasuriya's replacement Avishka Gunawardana, another left hander deciding to stand up to "Aussie Pacies" without an arm-guard. Thank God, nothing happened to young Avishka! The protective gear is there to wear. During the good old days when we played cricket, these protective gear was not there for us to wear. I can remember how my good friend, Sonny Yatawara, one of the fastest bowlers that Sri Lanka produced (he got Garfield Sorbers clean bowled) as a schoolboy of Ananda, despatching three or four Peterites to hospital in 1957.

I still remember, what Hon. K.B. Ratnayake, Speaker of Parliament, (former cricket captain of Hartley College Jaffna) stated in the course of his brilliant speech (Sinhala - Tamil and English) as the chief guest, at my "Ma Dutu Cricket Lowa" book launch, held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute sometime back. Mr. Ratnayake, very wittingly mentioned about the number of protective guards that the present day cricketers wear. Apen Minissu Ahanawa, Me Aya Yanne Yuddekatada kiyala - (People ask us, whether these people are going to the battlefront for a war).

Protective gear has come to stay in cricket today.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)