Zimbabwe lesson or Zimbabwe mess?
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
AFP
In his column in the Sunday Times, SR Pathiravithana says Sri Lanka shone like a beacon in world cricket until the last fortnight. A 5-0 ODI sweep of lowly Zimbabwe recently did little for Sri Lanka, rather it exposed how horribly wrong some experiments went, says the writer. Neither Upul Tharanga nor Mahela Udawatte batted with a semblance of any confidence, Mahela Jayawardene's form was deplorable, Kumar Sangakkara batted under sever pressure, and Chamara Kapugedera failed to live up to expectations once again.
In the same paper, Ranil Abeynaike says that from a relaxing, noble sport, cricket has reached a stage when it’s fully involved professionally, wrapped in political and thriving financially. Little wonder then, that Sachin Tendulkar has managed to cross 12,000 Test runs, turning a dream into reality.
Sri Lanka Cricket is already in a mess and saddled with a load of problems leading to disunity amongst its members following the appointment of former captain Arjuna Ranatunga as interim committee chairman. Ashantha de Mel's suspension from the post of Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) chairman is further proof that cricketers cannot be good administrators. Sa'adi Thawfeeq has more in the Nation on Sunday.
It is seldom that outstanding cricketers like Ranatunga and De Mel had enough time on their hands to become erudite individuals because their cricketing talents exceeded all of them. Therefore whatever employment they got soon after leaving school was purely because of their cricketing background and to a great extent had nothing to do with their academic qualifications, if any.
Jamie Alter is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo