Ending a dismal tour of England, Sri Lanka team finished the 3 T20I, 3 ODI limited series with 5 straight losses. Thanks to the weather, Sri Lanka escaped with a ‘No-result’ in the final ODI. With the abandoned final game, they also got some respite in the ICC World Cup super league table, getting 5 ‘free points’ to momentarily advance ahead of Zimbabwe and South Africa – having played 6 games more than both the teams.
England showed no mercy to the Lankans in all 6 of their matches. They selected their available full-strength squad to face the Lankans, even after very well knowing the gulf in quality between the visitors and the home side. Perhaps, the sheer incompetence of the visitors caught the Englishmen by surprise too.
Sri Lanka on the other hand wanted to experiment- as the national selectors kept on insisting, they wanted to build a team for the future, targeting the 2023 World Cup.
In the process, they failed to consider the psychological trauma which would result after a hammering such as this and the impact it would cause the team with the T20 World Cup just around the corner, as they overlooked several seniors and inexplicably axed a somewhat settled Dimuth Karunaratne from the ODI captaincy.
Sri Lanka cricket administration made the cardinal sin of sending an underprepared and inexperienced set of cricketers on a high profile tour such as England, where a majority of them had no clue on how to play in these conditions. To make things worse, 3 of them breached the bio-bubble and roamed the streets of Durham, only to be suspended and recalled to the country.
For the first time, international commentators and even past cricketers had shown ‘sympathy’ towards the current status of Sri Lanka Cricket. Even former captain Kumar Sangakkara was seen in an uneasy position in the commentary box, sitting alongside fellow English commentators, not able to fathom the lack of intent and preparation from the team he once represented.
The distressing English tour may finally be over, but the immediate problems for Sri Lanka cricket don’t end here.
Back home, SLC have added a bunch of ‘forgotten’ Cricketers into a bio-bubble, as back up for the upcoming India series. It serves as an insinuation too to the cricketers who had refused to sign central contracts.
Chief selector Pramodya Wickramasingha had told the Daily FT newspaper that they have no choice other than selecting a squad from the 39 players who entered the bio-bubble, in case if contract dispute between players and SLC does not settle.
Most experts and fans alike agree that the Indian team which arrived in the country is going to pose a huge challenge to whatever team Sri Lanka will put together. Even the best available XI at this stage does not seem to be worrying the Indians, who have sent a formidable team full of IPL superstars.
With just over a week before the beginning of the Indian tour, the immediate challenge for the Lankans is to put together a team to challenge the Indians at home, which will eventually sort out the set of cricketers they would want to continue to the T20 World Cup which will begin in a couple of months in the UAE.
For the moment though, a recovery plan is not on the cards as the feud between underperforming cricketers and the chaotic administration has put Sri Lanka Cricket out of the frying pan into the fire.