BENGALURU: As their batters walked in and out in quick succession at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Thursday, a number of fans on social media were wondering why Sri Lanka were in such a hurry to finish their match against New Zealand.
To be fair, it is hard to blame them if Sri Lanka’s players want this World Cup campaign to be over at the earliest. It has been nothing short of disastrous and few players have emerged with their reputation intact. Their five-wicket loss to New Zealand was just the latest in a string of results where the Lankans have been made to look like an Associate team. The one-sidedness of the result means that Sri Lanka are almost guaranteed to miss the 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Both England and Bangladesh will finish above them barring a miracle.
One has to go back to 1999 for the last time the Lankans managed to win only two matches in a World Cup. A generation headlined by some of the greats of the game like Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lasith Malinga ensured that they were the model of consistency at World Cups — in the next three editions, Sri Lanka finished runners-up twice and made the semifinal once. Those days appear to be long gone.
Of their seven losses in this tournament, they were only in the contest in a couple — the controversial defeat to Bangladesh could have gone either way while their loss to Pakistan came with just ten balls left in the game. The rest were all quite comprehensive. India beat them by 302 runs, South Africa by 102 while neither Afghanistan nor Australia ever looked in serious trouble while chasing down targets. The big win over England, incidentally at the same ground where they surrendered so meekly on Thursday, was a high point. But that will do little to pacify the fans at home.
“I think what we have to do now is, obviously, let the emotions settle a little bit,” said Sri Lanka coach Chris Silverwood after the match. “And then, as I said earlier, have a good debrief, dissect what's happened and have a look at what we can learn from this and what we can take into the next phase, the next chapter leading into the next World Cup, and how do we put things right that we got wrong this time. What do we need to put in place at home. What structure do we need to put in place and just really plan a proper plan leading to the next cycle to make sure that when we arrive at that cycle, we have everybody on the path, we have everybody available and we can put our best foot forward.”
Perhaps the sole silver lining among the many dark clouds of gloom will be the performance of Dilshan Madushanka. As Sri Lanka exited the tournament, the 23-year-old was still atop the bowling charts with 21 wickets. Madushanka only made his ODI debut earlier this year and had only taken seven wickets in the format coming into this tournament. The son of a poor fisherman, Madushanka has had quite a meteoric rise. A number of former Lankan players have already earmarked him for greatness.
Meanwhile, back home, the backlash to this campaign has already begun. Sri Lanka’s sports ministry initially dismissed the entire cricket before the court stepped in to stay it. In yet another twist on Thursday, the Sri Lankan parliament unanimously passed a resolution, calling for the sacking of the SLC, with both the ruling and opposition parties supporting it.
It is clear that changes are afoot in how cricket is run in the country. The question will be whether those changes can restore Sri Lanka to the exalted position it once occupied in international cricket.
