R Anandappa: Spinners too must be nursed like pacemen (26 Jul 1998)

26 July 1998

Spinners too must be nursed like pacemen

By Ranjan Anandappa

Spinners too must be nursed like pacemen, says Kumar Ramanathan.

Modern Cricket has undergone total transformation, it no longer resembles the cricket of the yore, so when the great scorer comes to assess the manner in which one has played the game irrespective whether you have won or lost, he will feel sad that the gentlemanliness is sadly disappearing in this highly commercialised game of cricket today.

"It's true that umpiring is one of the toughest jobs in the game but some umpires are partly responsible for this situation due to their inefficiency to control the game without fear and favour", said Kumar Ramanathan, the outspoken former Colts CC wicketkeeper and opening batsman who is here on a three-week holiday from Melbourne, Australia.

The umpires play a vital role in keeping the game within its perspective with their strict control and conduct. They could either make or break a player and good umpiring in domestic matches could help to produce quality players and improve the standard of cricket overall, said Kumar Ramanathan.

"Bias or inconsistent umpiring will create animosity between the umpires and players and even players of either side and the atmosphere for a interesting and enjoyable game could be lost with that," he added.

Ramanathan was surprised to see some of the umpires during his era still doing service. He said that it was high time that more and more people who have played the game took over the 'White Coat'.

"Sri Lanka should prepare better fast wickets with some bounce in their domestic tournaments. That will help most of the inexperienced players to cope up with bounce at home, bouncy wickets will help the spinners as well. During my time good fast wickets and good speedsters were produced like Tony Opatha, Dennis Chanmugam, T. B. Kehelgamuwa etc. Prior to that, we had fast bowlers like Darrel Lieversz, Norton Frederick, L. R. Gunatileka, Sonny Yatawara, Sylvester Dias along with a crop of top spin bowlers that formed a well balanced attack and became a threat to the foreign teams," Kumar Ramanathan said.

Kumar was optimistic that the Lankans would fare well in England.

"The pitches prepared in county games are quite different from the test pitches. With the sun shining and a fair Test pitch could provide Sri Lanka the ideal platform," he said.

When Sri Lanka first played in England they fared not so impressively in the county games but did well in the one off-Test with Sidath Wettimuny missing a double hundred, Duleep Mendis falling short of twin hundreds and Amal Silva hitting a century.

He further said that the country's strength lies in its batting and spinners. So we should nurse the spinners in the manner which we look after the fast bowlers. The fast bowlers have been sent to MRF Madras but the spinners are neglected. Getting down top spin bowlers from our neighbouring countries could void this gap. We should not follow suit what other countries do .

New boy Niroshan Bandaratilake opening the Sri Lanka bowling attack will not take the country's cricket far. He should be given the dues of a spin bowler, was the opinion of Ramanathan.

"Young cricketers should be sponsored and sent to countries like England, Australia, South Africa that will give them immense knowledge of the conditions and different types of wickets which they come across.

He said that Aravinda de Silva could be classed as the world's best batsman along with India's Sachin Tendulkar and West Indies Brian Lara.

He further said that at the moment, Sanath Jayasuriya is going through a lean season but once he gets a good score he should come back to his own. Atapattu looks superbly sound.

"In Australia when a player starts failing and finds himself out of form, he goes back to his basics. He hangs a ball and goes back to his rudimentary sessions in the backyard. This method has been successful to most of the players," said Kumar who has been a part time coach for several years in Melbourne.

Kumar Ramanathan captained St. Benedict's College in 1967 after previously playing under Felix Dias and Sunil Fernando. He opened batting with his school mate Tony Appathurai for Sri Lanka Schools against the London Schoolboys in 1967.

He got his first big break in 1970 representing an under 25 side against a team brought by Indian Ashok Mankad which included Karsan Ghavri, Ramnath Parker, P. Shivalkar etc.

His Sara Trophy cricket career included a superb double hundred (203) against SSC in 1976 with 199 runs coming on the first day.

In 1979, he scored an unbeaten 165 against SSC once again.

Kumar migrated to Australia in 1984 and lives with his wife Meegan, son and daughter. None of his children has taken to sports but his son is keen on water sports.

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