Sri Lanka step into an uncertain future

Had he not travelled to Brisbane to watch his sons play in a shield game, Geoff Marsh, the recently sacked Sri Lanka coach, might well have put an ironic spin on the legendary line from Casablanca, and said: "Of all the cricket grounds, in all the towns, in all the world, they walk into mine." Had this been a Test match and the badass days of WACA, the crowds might have sold out the ground to boo the Sri Lankan team, to display their displeasure over the shoddy treatment with one of their own.

This, though, is an ODI, and that too not involving Australia. Moreover, the team - the cricketers that will be on the field - are going through much worse than Marsh did during his brief stint with the Sri Lankan team. They haven't been fully paid since last year's World Cup, they have had four different coaches since then, the captain who led them to their first Test win in South Africa is sacked, and the players say they don't even know the reasons behind the changes.

"It was a bit of an unfortunate situation where the cricket board took a decision, and I think, as players, we need to just concentrate on our cricket, and that's all we can do," their vice-captain and the man touted to lead the team into the next era, Angelo Mathews, said. When asked if the players were consulted at all before Marsh was sacked, Mathews said, "We were not consulted. It's just the board [that] took the decision, and we have to bear with it."

They have been caught at a time where they have sacked Tillakaratne Dilshan but don't think Angelo Mathews is ready yet to be the captain. That has meant they have brought back the reluctant captain, yet a shrewd strategist, Mahela Jayawardene.

"They have been speaking to the players regarding the captaincy, and they asked Mahela whether he wanted to captain," Mathews said. "To steady the ship I think Mahela took it. He has mentioned he is not going to captain for so long. It's the correct decision from Mahela. He is a very good captain, he is a seasoned campaigner, he reads the game well, he knows what has to be done to steady the ship. It's a good call from Mahela."

There is another school of thought that sees Dilshan as the fall guy. He opened to balance the team, he kept wicket when Kumar Sangakkara was captain and the other keeper was injured, he agreed to lead the side to the tough assignments, and is now sacked. "He is a great character," Mathews said of the former captain. "He can cope with all the pressure, and can handle situations. He is all ready and set to go for tomorrow."

Then there is a small matter of the millions of dollars they haven't been paid. The deadline given to the board is February 29, but it has to be difficult to concentrate on the game at such times. "We are playing for the love of the game," Mathews said. "Eventually we will get paid. The cricket board has been trying to sort out the situation. Hopefully they will come up with a good solution in the near future. Right now we are concentrating on our cricket.

"There have been a few hiccups lately. Now, I think, as a team, our job is to concentrate on our cricket and not anything else. We are here to play cricket, and we will purely concentrate on our cricket, and the game we play."

Concentrating just on cricket is the refrain among all Sri Lankan players. Sometimes these situations can galvanise teams if they are united. They won the Durban Test, which was the last place where one would have expected a fractured Sri Lankan side to win. They are coming off tough cricket in South Africa, by the end of which they successfully chased 300-plus on successive occasions. Fighting adversity together is a great bond. Sri Lanka will look to do that over the coming weeks.

It is going to be tough because the sacked captain is still part of the team, as are the intermediate and future captains. It is also going to be fascinating to see what the crisis brings out of this team.