Debasis Sen, Pallekele: Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach Chaminda Vaas’s remarks during the post day’s play on Saturday gives a clear picture about the state of cricket in the country. According to Vaas, Sri Lanka would have benefitted by playing three fast bowlers on this wicket, but the management had other ideas. Talking to the scribes post days play, Vaas said, “Ideally it would have been good had we went in with three fast bowlers but the team management has other ideas.”
By team management Vaas was referring to coach Nick Pothas and manager Ashanka Gurusinha.
The former fast bowler also defended the current Sri Lankan bowlers. According to Vaas, “Yes, we have good fast bowlers, but Sri Lanka Cricket needs to wait for some time. They need to give some time to these fast bowlers. They haven’t played much cricket. If you see the Indian fast bowlers they have played about sixty games. We need to be patient. We’ll be able to get results from the fast bowlers.”
Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul was going great guns right from the start of day’s play. But the home team showed great determination to pull things back towards the final session.
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“I’m not happy with the way the fast bowlers bowled in the morning,” Vaas said on Saturday (August 12). “They bowled here and there. I’m not giving excuses. These guys are inexperienced. Vishwa is playing his second game and Lahiru is bowling his sixth. They didn’t bowl well. After lunch they came back strongly and bowled pretty well. Especially the spinners. We kept them to 320 for the first day. I’m really, really happy with the spinners. At in the end, the way Vishwa bowled in the last two spells was also good,” said Vaas.
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Vaas also called out for a better first-class structure to help the bowlers reach their best.”They (Vishwa Fernando and Lahiru Kumara) need to play more, I think. If you take our first-class cricket, they don’t have enough first-class experience to play well. If you take quicks from any country, they start bowling well after they have played 20-25 Tests only. We can’t suddenly expect a lot from Vishwa and Lahiru Kumara. But it’s with their mindset that they can improve. They need to practice a lot and play a lot of games. With that match experience only they will develop.