E Rodrigopulle: Good experience for our young cricketers (23 Sep 1998)

23 September 1998

Good experience for our young cricketers

By Elmo Rodrigopulle

Although they did not win gold, the Sri Lankan second string cricketers and the Board can be pleased with their performance in the first ever cricket tournament in the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

As in life luck plays a great part in success or failure even in sports. After bundling out the Zimbabweans in the quarter-finals, luck deserted our gallant cricketers in the semi-final against South Africa, which game at one stage they seemed to have pocketed when they had the Proteas on 96 for 9 chasing 132 for victory.

It is said that a match is not won or lost till the final delivery is bowled. The Lankans let complacency set in when they had the South Africans by the jagular and the opponents last pair of Boje and Dawson batting sensibly and looking for the one's and two's, unlike their seniors who looked for the fours and sixes and perished, crawled to a famous victory.

When the South Africans faced the Aussies in the final, on paper the Aussies were the stronger side considering that they were throwing in their best possible squad while the Proteas were understrength.

But how the South Africans led cleverly by Shaun Pollock beat the powerful Aussies in the final to pocket gold is history now.

In the Emirates triangular tourney in England, Sri Lanka beat both South Africa and England who are preparing earnestly and who are front runners with Australia to win the World Cup in England next year.

Now the South Africans with almost a second string have undone the Aussies and these three teams certainly had their hopes dashed and their coaches will certainly be taking their teams to the drawing boards and showing them where things went wrong.

Anyway there is still time for these teams to get their act together. These defeats are sure to spur them to getting down to serious work. England and South Africa have not yet engraved their names on the world cup. England especially will be determined this time round considering that they will be playing on home. They have been losing finalists on three occasions.

While not wanting to take away the gloss from the South African victory, the consensus is that this first ever cricket carnival in the Commonwealth Games was a flop considering that England refused to send a side and the International Cricket Council's back turn on the tourney refusing to accept it as an international tournament.

With this move by the ICC most teams flew out their second stringers except for Australia. As for the Lankans it was a good experience for those aspiring for national honours.

Our second stringers must be exposed to foreign competition. Then and only then will they learn and become good and better cricketers. It is hoped that these youngsters will improve with this experience and not fall by the way side.

Apart from the cricketers, it was our athletes who kept the flag flying with their superb efforts. Although Damayanthi Darsha was not on the medal winning trail like her team mates Sugath Tillekeratne and Sriyani Kulawansa, she did enough for the athletic world to take notice of her.

Sugath Tillekeratne and Sriyani Kulawansa were marvellous. It was just one of those things that deprived Tillekeratne of gold in the 400 metres. He was running against some of the best competitors in this event and the way he pushed the winner and the runner up was amazing.

Sriyani Kulawansa went over the 100 metre hurdles in fine style like a gazelle and grabbed a silver by coming second. It was a great effort.

These three athletes and the 4x400 relay team have proved their talent and skill and the authorities concerned must make it a point to pit them against foreign competition as often as possible. Running against stiff foreign competition will bring the best out of them and then winning medals will be no problem.

As for the rest of the teams from SL that took part in the Games the less said the better. With regard to the display by our ruggerites we say: 'No Comment'

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