Ranatunga - a hard act to follow

In the Sunday Island, Madura Nandana writes that since the retirement of the gritty Arjuna Ranatunga, the Sri Lankan middle order hasn't looked as stable. The fighting spirit is strangely lacking.

The real cancer that has spread on players’ mind is the personal milestones of their careers, not the victory of the team, the country. It is apparent through the way they keep scoring and when their way of batting is compared to that of the old eras.

S.R Pathiravithana has similar views in the Sunday Times. Here he profiles another former middle-order batsman and team-mate of Ranatunga - Asanka Gurusinha. The left-hander wasn't among the stars in the Sri Lankan line-up in the 1990s, but his solidity at the top allowed Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva to flourish. Thilan Samaraweera is one player in the current team who quite matches Gurusinha.

Before Gurusinha faded out of Sri Lanka cricket in the aftermath of their World Cup win he had a respectable average of 38.92 in Test Cricket and 28.27 in the limited overs version. Ironically Asanka was also moulded essentially a Test player by the pundits at that time. Nevertheless he always had his place reserved in the ODI side as the peers of that era knew the balance in the team was more important than blind experimentation.