da dobrowin： Having made a hash of the Pakistan A tour the Sri Lankan national selectorshave surpassed expectations with their Coca Cola Cup squad, showing thevision to accept the management’s argument that the balance of the side muststart to reflect
Charlie Austin13-Jul-2001Having made a hash of the Pakistan A tour the Sri Lankan national selectorshave surpassed expectations with their Coca Cola Cup squad, showing thevision to accept the management’s argument that the balance of the side muststart to reflect requirements for the 2003 World Cup.During the next ten months Sri Lanka will participate in four triangulartournaments, two in Sri Lanka and two in Sharjah. They will therefore playat least 21 one-day matches on pitches traditionally conducive to Sri Lanka’s medley of spinners.They could continue as before and would stand an excellent chance of winningall four tournaments. Sri Lanka have developed a one-day system in the subcontinent, based upon two fast bowlers and three spinners, that is wellunderstood, slickly implemented and successful.Unfortunately it’s a system that won’t work in South Africa, a fact provedonly too clearly on Sri Lanka’s last tour, when they were hammered five-one.With the exception of Muttiah Muralitharan and perhaps Jayasuriya, with hislow-armed darts, the Sri Lankan spinners will not repeat their runthrottling heroics of the 1996 World Cup there.The fast bowlers, however, will be able to exploit the extra pace and bounceof the hard South African wickets and a change in the regulations that willhave a far reaching impact on the game, namely the introduction of onebouncer per over from September.One-day batsmen will no longer be able to lurch onto the front foot inconfident anticipation of another length ball. They can expect far moreballs around chest height and the odd few around their ear holes. Thependulum, so far in favour of the batsman in recent times, will swing backtowards the bowlers and the fast men will be the great beneficiaries.The future plight of the humble spinner cannot be compared to that of thedinosaurs or dodo, but it is going to become harder trade to ply. Asia’sspinners should form a pressure group and start campaigning for the WorldCup’s return to the sub-continent.With the World Cup likely to be dominated by seam then it is obviously wiseto experiment now, even if conditions in Sharjah and Sri Lanka don’t demandit. With four fast bowlers likely to play, rather then the normal two orthree, the players need to get used to a different style of cricket, tobowling changes at different times and less familiar fielding positions.No one has to adjust more of course than the fast bowlers themselves, whohave become quite accustomed to a short burst at the start, followed by anafternoon’s grazing in the deep. Now, they must become experts in both themiddle and later parts of the innings.Dav Whatmore has made it clear that these fast bowlers must also be able toscore runs too: “To be successful in South Africa we need to haveconsiderable fast bowling resources and some of those bowlers must be ableto bat. You only have to look at the success achieved South Africa torealise that conditions there are well suited these types of players.”This being the case the selectors are going to have to find two fast bowlingall rounders, who can change the match with both bat and ball. The searchwill not be easy. There is a talented group of bowlers emerging from RumeshRatnayake’s Fast Bowling Academy, but there are no genuine batsmen amongthem yet.The selectors though have plumped for two exciting prospects: Suresh Pereraand Dulip Liyanage. Perera has the charisma and sparkle; Liyanage is thework horse – steady and determined. Both are useful with the bat and couldreally stiffen up the tail. They now need a fair chance to prove that theycan do the job.Perhaps the most encouraging feature of the squad selected was that it hasshown, for the moment at least, that the selectors, coaches, and seniorplayers are all moving in the same direction and are sharing a common goal.Two weeks ago there were real fears that this wasn’t going to be the case.Even the Sports Minister has felt compelled to develop 15 ‘fast’ practicepitches at Premadasa International Stadium, which is a useful, thoughperhaps hopeful, move that is eminently more preferable to this weeksunwarranted meddling in selectionIt’s now a question of resolve. Everyone must remain committed to theproject and not break ranks at the first sniff of failure. Even if thepitches are to be harder and faster than the norm, as is being reputed now,don’t expect the Waca or Wanderers. The pitches in Dambulla and Premadasawill still offer the spinners assistance and there could well be a tradeoffbetween short term success and long term glory. For the moment at leastthough Sri Lankan cricket appears to be focused on the later.