Good wake up call, says Arjuna (12 November 1998)

12 November 1998

Good wake up call, says Arjuna

by Chris Dhambarage

The Sri Lanka skipper Arjuna Ranatunga said that the poor performances in the Coca Cola Trophy triangular limited over cricket tournament in Sharjah could be a good wake up call for his team ahead of the World Cup in England.

Ranatunga was speaking after his team was knocked out from the final having lost all four preliminary round matches against India and Zimbabwe. "It is good that these lean periods are coming at this stage and not in the months of March or April," said Ranatunga. He further said that his team would like to forget this bad tour completely and concentrate more on the important Australian tour starting in December.

The Sri Lankan captain also said he would request the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) to reconsider in future in agreeing to play tournaments of this nature. The standard of the game would certainly go down if one team has to play four matches inside five day's. Ranatunga said that a team need a good break in between matches and no player in the world will be one hundred percent fit for four consecutive matches within five day's.

Ranatunga said that these tournaments should have been organised in a proper manner and said that this was probably the first time matches were played in successive day's at Sharjah. The BCCSL in fact have already cancelled two tours to Kenya and Singapore in an attempt to keep the side in a good frame of mined ahead of the World Cup.

In connection to the disappointing performances in the Coca Cola triangular tournament Ranatunga said that any top team would go through this rough period. The team have won most of the matches in the last three years and the people expect good things from us all the time. But now the team needs more confidence and one good win would certainly lift their morale. Ranatunga also said that he would like to bury this tournament before he could go home and think more seriously ahead of the future.

The absence of ace off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was a big setback and he could have added a great amount of variety into the Sri Lankan attack. "Muralitharan is a player who could have picked up a wicket or two mid way in the innings and we were lacking in variety," said Ranatunga. The Sri Lankan skipper also praised the effort of left hander Hashan Tillekeratne who compiled a fine half century under trying circumstances in the game against Zimbabwe. Answering a question Ranatunga said that Tillekeratne was not included in the earlier matches as they wanted to give Roshan Mahanama a place in the batting line up.

The Sri Lankan captain said that there is lot of homework to be done and he need to discuss matters with the manager and the coach before picking up the squad for the World Cup tournament. The team did not play positively and that was one reason for the teams poor performance in this tournament. In connection to the openers Ranatunga said that they wanted to try-out young Aviska Gunawardena in an attempt to build up the right combination before the Australian tour.

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