Sri Lanka: Good leg spinners are what our cricket needs (27 Jan 1998)

Tuesday 27, January 1998

Good leg spinners are what our cricket needs

Elmo Rodrigopolle

The Sri Lankan cricketers as expected swept aside the Zimbabweans in the two Test series and the one-dayers as well. But they suffered a few tremors in the Second Test before skipper Arjuna Ranatunga and vice captain Aravinda de Silva raised them from the ashes _ phoenix like.

However the Lankans will do well not to rest on their laurels, but get down to more hard work immediately _ what with a tough tour of Mandela Land not so far away.

Against the Zimbabweans while the batting and fielding held its own, it was once again the department of bowling that had the skipper and the management highly worried.

From where or how are they to unearth match winning bowlers? While offie Muralitharan and Vaas are on a high plane and promising pacie Ravindra Pushpakumara showing signs of turning out into a penetrative bowler, it is the dearth of match winning back up bowlers, the spin kinds that is worrying the skipper and The Management.

When they recalled left arm spinner Don Arunasiri who was not even in the pool, it showed how poor we are in this aspect of bowling. Spinners tend to get better with age, although Muralitharan was the exception.

In the past Sri Lanka had a galaxy of spinners whose names space does not permit us to mention. However just to mention a few we had leg spinners Ivers Gunasekera, Gamini Goonasena, off spinners Abu Fuard and Neil Chanmugam and left armers Daya Sahabandu and Ajit de Silva. Other than for the last two, Gunasekera, Goonasena, Fuard and Chanmugam were a captain's dream allrounders who could have held their own against the best in the world.

It is not likely that we will see the likes of them even in the next milleneum.

This surely is a sad reflection on the authorities and it is time that those at the helm made it their business to unearth spinners of quality and ones who could bowl a side out twice.

Getting five wickets in the first innings and not being able to get any in the second is not the bowlers that the authorities should be looking for. To be able to bowl well in the first innings and then maintain that form in the second should be the requisite.

From where they will get them is the responsibility of those in authority. Skipper Ranatunga must be a worried man what with the tour of South Africa looming in the foreground. The Proteas have shown a weakness against good leg spin bowling. How Ranatunga must be yearning for a Gunasekera or a Goonasena.

While Muralitharan was cleared by the ICC, a worried man would have been allrounder Kumara Dharmasena who was aware that his action was under scrutiny. There is a pronounced change in everything that Dharmasena does now when bowling.

His run up, action and finish seems to have been corrected and to many his action does not look suspect now. He bowled economically in the one-dayers against the Zimbabweans and skipper Ranatunga must have breathed a sigh of relief.

It will serve the team well to make Sanath Jayasuriya an important bowling member. He has the ability to vary and think out the batsman, instead of waiting for the batsman to make a mistake. More bowling should make Jayasuriya a better bowler. He is now considered a one-day bowler.

As for the Zimbabweans although they failed to win the Test series or the one-day series, they proved worthy competitors and if they stick to their plans should be a hard side to beat.

On this tour the umpiring came in for a bit of discussion. Having been on tour with the Sri Lankans I can vouch for the fact that they have been at the receiving end of umpiring peccadillos on numerous occasions.

That's how the game goes.

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