What Went Wrong in Sri Lankan Cricket

1996 World Champions

Sri Lanka Cricket was first named the Ceylon National Cricket (Team); later, it was renamed Sri Lanka Cricket in 1965, when Sri Lanka played their first test match against England at Old Trafford, where England beat Sri Lanka. Later in 1985, the Sri Lanka beat India for their first test and ODI match victory. Both events happened before the South East Asian hosted the World Cup, crowned by Sri Lankans for the first time in their history. Before entering the 1996 World Cup, Sri Lankan fans had not expected much from the team. It was a "queer underdog story" and inspired many young talents in the country.

Led by Mr. Arjuna Ranathunga, they beat Australia by 7 wickets at Lahore. In that, Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya won the Player of the Series award. entering the Cricket World Cup, as not much expertise keeps Sri Lanka in the upper hand; they have nothing to lose. They overperformed at that tournament. Many young talents were noticed. Sanath Jayasuriya,Muttaih Mularidaran, Chaminda Vass, and Mavan Athapathu—these players become the next pillers of Sri Lankan cricket. Some players will remain World Cup winners in the next few years. Romesh Kaluviatara and Kumar Darmasena are a few among them.

After-effects become world champions

Winning the 1996 Cricket World Cup changed the enthusiasm for cricket in Sri Lanka. In the early days, cricket was played around popular areas. then it moves towards every city inside the country. After winning the World Cup, they took cricket as granted and expected much more from Sri Lankan cricket. people enjoy watching it. The wave that builds in the country helps to bring attention to global

local advertisements tend to go towards cricketers at that time. 

Some local brands endorsed Sri Lankan players at that time. One of them features in a foreign advertisement., such as Arjuna's endorsement of the World Cup theme ads.(idea) They got the limelight at that time. 

Major Colombo/Kandy schools were dedicated to this sport. 

There are few players who emerge at this time of period.

Mahela Jayawaradne, Kuamr Sagakkara, Thilan Samaraweera,Russel Arnold, Thilan Thushara Thilakarathne Dilshan

After 2000

Sri Lanka next played the Asian Test Championship in the 2001–2002 Asian Test Championship, defeating Pakistan. Later, they became the champions of the ICC Champions Trophy and beat Australia in a test series under Sanath Jayasuriya. At that time, Sri Lanka overperformed India and dominated in the region.

Pakistan was also there, but they were not able to win any major trophy after their 1992 World Cup win. With players like Sanath Jayasuriya and Mavan Athapathu, they entered the 2003 World Cup, where they reached the semi-final and lost to the Austrians after getting beaten miserably in the 1999 World Cup. Sri Lankan fans expect to do a lot more. where the results were achieved, with the status of Sri Lankan cricket growing through fans, everyone wants to be part of the team. 

It was a challenge to keep every player satisfied, and at the same time, management needed to know how to get rid of the players at the right time. This causes extra pressure on Sri Lankan cricket management. They were eager for the results individually. It has become something that everyone wants to outperform because competition is much higher than it previously was. Cricket was identified as the main activity inside Sri Lanka. Players had to work hard to maintain their position on the team. Even at fan prospect, players were judged quickly and criticised, Fans have access to social media because of modernization, and at that time, foreign media also began to emerge. 

At this time, some domestic leagues also start to find the best players for their teams, for example. The Vitality Blast Tournament held by England and the KFC Big Bash Tournament starts in Australia later at that time. where foreign players were also invited to play in domestic tournaments. Cricket players out there noticed this as an extra income source.

10 years after world cup

After winning the Cricket World Cup, Sri Lanka almost reached the 2007–2011 World Cup final back to back. And also, they won the T20 World Cup in 2014, then won the Asia Cup six times (recently, in 2022), second only to only India. 

Not only Sri Lanka, but every nation played the game with competitiveness this time after the dominance of the World Cricket Australia team on top of every other team. In some countries, players got worshipped by their fans. It was peak time when the 2007 Cricket World Cup happened.

Where everyone expected Austria to win their third conservative title. Their players are widely known in every region. Everyone is amazed by this Australian team. and how they managed to keep their players motivated after winning back-to-back world cups. As per the most popular opinion, Australia managed to win their third consecutive World Cup victory. 

Behind this Australian team success, many people were interested. Their Sport administration was satisfactory as it was. Their admissions system chairperson changed every 3 years after. and They tried to keep politics away from the sport at that time. and in further Australia, cricket was not only a sport that did well; they had many sports where their nations got their identity. Rugby was one of them. 

Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan These countries identified their identity through cricket (later, India moved to other sports). Some people want to become cricketers because of the fame they have, not for the sport or the spirit. 

After around this decade, their few affiliations were directed towards Sri Lankan cricketers for their playing style; one of them was Mutaih Mularidaran. but he overcame that allegation and proved himself not guilty.

Player stats were quite decent at that time. As mentioned, players were the top-class batsmen at that time.in the South Asian continent. Some of them hold records that are still not broken.

(Source - Wikipedia)    

Sri Lankan Cricket Board

After the Mutiah Mularidaran incident, the Sri Lanka Cricket Board faced many backlashes from the local fans. As an example, they benched Sanath Jayasuriya from the squad for an upcoming Australian tournament in 2006. then there were a few backlashes from the Asian Cricket committee. Arjuna failed to keep the promise satisfied with the Asian Cricket Committee. Because of this conflict, the Sri Lankan government has apologised to Jay Shah. At that time, India conducted an IPL tournament, and the Sri Lanka cricket board wanted to dodge the tournament. This was the main reason behind this controversy. 

There were some questionable decisions taken by the Cricket board at that time too. dropped some players from the team without any proper reasons. favourable for the club players who played for the club, that chairpersons club. There was a time period where we could hardly see players coming without any cricket background to the team, like Muthaih Mularidaran and Mavan Athapahttu Kumar Sagakkra used to do. 

They didn't have any cricket backgrounds, so they came to the team and established their places. Sri Lankan Cricket Board chose their favourites for the team more than talent after 2011. On the other hand, their few allegations go around match fixing in the 2011 world final. 

  

After the pioneers left the game

 

After the 2007 and 2011 World Cup captains decided to retire, 2015, March 18.in 2015, the pioneers of the game decided to retire from cricket. It was handed over to the younger captain, and a much younger squad remained, but still, the squad had the ability to achieve success. but at that time, Politics played dirty games inside Sri Lankan cricket. through using their favourites to come inside the Sri Lankan cricket team, rather than prove themselves using their networks to come inside the team. the next big superstar yet to come.

During 2015–2018, many players came and went; some of them only played 2–3 matches. At that time, the team was lead by Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Laisth Malinga, and Thalakarathne Dilshan. Dilshan was not a young guy. He has some responsibility with the team after the giants left the team. his test debut since 1999. But Sri Lanka's record was not good after the team didn't find the phase that remained before the post-World Cup in 2011. and 2012. Sri Lanka won the T20 World Cup in 2014. was the biggest milestone for Sri Lankan cricket; this was the last win before the downfall happened.

Downfall

then slowly they slipped the grip that they held. later 2016. After the quarterfinals exist in 2015, cricket world cup players need to be picked as soon as possible. Colleague selectors also plan to build the team for the 2019 cricket world cup. The Cricket board was also under pressure at that time to find the next big star inside the team. 2017-2019 is the time period of Sri Lankan cricket losses. Miserably, they retired some players to bring some youngsters into the team. but they are not able to keep their place within the team. As a perfect example, Dilshan was forced to retire at that time by the cricket board, based on some fan contortions that happened at that time.

The start of 2017 was not good for Sri Lankan cricket. In January, they played against South Africa in the South African homeland; they lost the whole ODI series at that time, and their next stop was then to win the t20 series against Australia and the tri-national tournament; they also won the Bangladesh t20 and test series. In Australia, this was the only series Sri Lanka held in 2017. Later, they were beaten by the same year they played the ICC Champions Trophy, where they placed last in their group behind India, Pakistan, and South Africa, then the most disgraced time start Sri Lanka's loss of ODI series to Zimbabwe, after that loss India's ODI and T20 series, and after that loss to Pakistan in the same year.

2018: South Africa won one test series after that. Asia Cup Sri Lanka knocked out in group stage from Agfanistan and Bangalore. This was not a good stat in 2018. and loss to England in theODI series, t20 series, and test series. in srilanaka. Same loss to the New Zealand in the Test ODI and T20 series in this year.

 

2019: SL wins test series against South Africa, later loses to Australia in test series, and South Africa in ODI and t20 series. Then the World Cup begins, where two group stage matches are abandoned. Sri Lanka played a total 11 matches and was only able to win 2 of them, versus Afghanistan and England, and Sri Lanka won the ODI series against Afghanistan and later lost the ODI series to Pakistan, but was able to win the T20 series of that tour. as 3-0 

In 2020, Sri Lanka lost an ODI and a T20 series to the West Indies following the Covid pandemic, and there was another test series against South Africa, which Sri Lanka lost 2-0.

                                                                                          

Regional dominance shift 

These are the major events that Sri Lanka cries about after the big players leave. Sri Lanka was unable to perform, but two years later they won the Asian Cup back in 2022. After being runners-up in the 2023 Asian Cup, Sri Lanka is back to gain their regional dominance. 

But the sad part was after winning the World Cup in 2011. India never backs away from their position; they have now become a powerful factor in the cricket world. Many of their players endorse international sports brands. and compete with foreign players. It was never easy to go where Sri Lanka was in the late 90s and early 20s.

 

  

       

World Cup 2023

In the recent World Cup, Sri Lanka's loss to India by 302 runs was marked as the "worst performance" by the Sri Lanka cricket team in the year 2023.

What went Wrong

After retiring the best players, SLC doesn't have much plan to execute, so they give a chance to several players to try their luck. School-level cricket was there, but SLCB did the favour for their known players because of this cricket downfall. Some players who played for more than 2–3 years still claimed their place on the team. 

Because of this partiality, the dominance of SLC drops. Some of the school players vanished from the scene. never able to select a Sri Lankan cricket team. 

As a Colombo schoolboy. Two people studied with me. Sammu Ashan and Malinga Amerasinghe got to play first-class cricket recently; they both should have gotten their chance a few years earlier, in my opinion. These two young players were good at school cricket leagues at the time. This was my subjective opinion.

The corruption was also a key factor that SLC was not able to get away with. They never develop the younger school level or any domestic cricket leagues. 

Recently, they started Sri Lanka Premier League. but the talent was not enough to compete at the international level. They need to invest and find talent in rural areas, where sometimes the talent goes to waste without adequate guidance. 

The Indian Ranji Trophy played a huge part before the IPL, where players like Yuvaraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, and Gautam Gambir played. the exact tournament that Sri Lankans lacked. india put a lot of effort into covering all the players around the country; at least reaching the maximum player audience was the key success to achieving what the Sri Lankan team was unable to find. I hope SLCB brings the best days to SLC in the coming days.

Conclusion

After implementing many changes and factors, Sri Lankan cricket has many things to prove in the coming years. After 2023, they need to become second in their region, and they need to put their class of performance beside Pakistan and Bangladesh. These teams have been similar to Sri Lanka recently. But Pakistan cricket always tends to find good fast ballers through their school levels. They have a talent. Recently, their star player, Babar Azam, was quite impressive. Sri Lanka is still not able to replace the players like Muralitharan, Sangakkara, and Mahala. and leadership status is also not so consistent these times; they strip off the captaincy of players quiet early for variance reasons.

Sri Lankans need to prove on the international stage where they belong. as an example, they need to perform in an ICC tournament where they failed to do so after 2014. 

10 years passed after winning the ICC Cricket T20 World Cup. if we do not bounceback to where we were before. Sri Lankan cricket remains where it belongs today. and the rich history Sri Lankan cricket will not be worth enough for comming years.

 

Links - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chathura-kularathne-408673137/