Debasis Sen, Colombo: Sri Lankan opening batsman Dimuth Karunaratne has criticised the country’s domestic cricket structure for the dismal performance of the hosts in the test series against India so far. According to the opener, “In Sri Lanka we only have 8 to 10 domestic matches in first-class season, which by any means is not enough for a test nation.”
It has to be admitted that cricket here in Sri Lanka is on the decline with nothing really to cheer about. The team is languishing at the bottom of the ICC rankings. They are currently ranked 7th in test rankings. The nation has been passing through a transition period and it is taking little longer to find the replacements of Sangakkara, Jayawerdene, Muralitharan who has been great ambassadors of the game in these parts.
Another key reason for Sri Lanka’s poor show is the fall out of the club cricket structure which was the back bone of the cricket infrastructure of the country. The current administrators are concentrating more on developing the game to the Provinces.
“I think not playing too many first class matches is doing no good for the upcoming cricketers. We have to play more first class cricket and then we can find more players who can dominate the game. That’s the thinking – what Sri Lanka Cricket has to work on for the players.”
Talking about the post retirement phase of Sangakkara and Mahela, Karunaratne said, “We are missing the likes of Sanga and Mahela. Even during the last series in 2015, we had the presence of Sangakkara. But this time we have no Sanga. But we have a bunch of young guys who can dominate the game if we play fearless cricket. Yeah they (India) played a lot of good first class cricket and IPL.”
Admitting that it will be a difficult to save the test match, particularly the way the track is behaving. But the Sri Lankan captain is drawing positive from Chandimal’s match saving knock, last time both sides played against each other at Galle. According to Karunaratne, “We all want to save the Test match. Chandimal and Kusal batted really well in the last few overs. We have to play positively. We must play the sweep and reverse sweep well in order to counter their spinners. Last time when we played in Galle, Chandi got 160-odd scoring a lot of runs off the sweep and reverse sweep. I think that will be key,” signs off Karunaratne.