Lanka 'A' squad to be revamped

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The three 4-day unofficial tests against touring New Zealand 'A' from October 1-21 will provide Sri Lanka 'A' cricketers with the their final chance to make an impact and catch the eyes of the national selectors before their performances during the year 2005 is evaluated.

Chairman of selectors Lalith Kaluperuma said that at the end of the New Zealand 'A' test series, the national selection committee would sit down along with head coach Tom Moody and Sri Lanka 'A' coach Stan Nel and start evaluating the performances of the players before restructuring the Sri Lanka 'A' squad for 2006.

"I think we have given the players whom we thought have potential for the future a fair chance to prove themselves in matches against the 'A' sides of England, Pakistan, West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand," said Kaluperuma.

"They have played together for almost the entire year. We can't just go on continuing with this squad forever. We will have to restructure it so that fresh players with potential are brought in and given a similar chance to display their talents," he said.

Kaluperuma said this message had been conveyed to the players currently involved in the South Africa 'A' and New Zealand 'A' series.

The worrying factor as Kaluperuma sees it is the batting where none of the batsmen have been able to make an impression with any big contribution let alone score a century.

By the time the national selectors sit down to assess the performances of the Sri Lanka 'A' team players they would have played a fair amount of matches against all kinds of opposition in both the longer and shorter versions of the game.

"I am quite happy the way the fast bowling and spin departments have responded, batting is the worry," said Kaluperuma. "We will have to come up with a solution as to why our top order batsmen are not getting those big runs on the board and then take a decision."

Kaluperuma said he was pleased with the performances of left-arm spinner Sajeewa Weerakoon and right-arm leg spinner Malinga Bandara both of whom have shown the potential to be on the shortlist. While Weerakoon has been taunting the opposition at home, Bandara has excelled on English wickets taking 45 wickets from eight matches for county Gloucestershire who not only chose him as the most outstanding cricketer of the year but also presented him with the county cap.

The fast bowling department has also a fair crop of youngsters in Farveez Maharoof, Dilhara Lokuhettige, and Gayan Wijekoon. Kaluperuma said the return of Dilhara Fernando from injury has given the national team more depth in their bowling. There is also Nuwan Zoysa on the sidelines recovering from injury.

From the batting point of view only opener Upul Tharanga has forced himself into the national team.

Kaluperuma said that after a discussion with the two coaches and the rest of the selection committee, he would collectively put up a paper to the Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee with certain proposals that will have to be implemented if Sri Lanka cricket is to move forward and have a strong reserve bank to act as a feeder to the senior team.

The former Sri Lanka off-spinner said that winning matches was not the criterion but budding potential players for the future was essential.

He also spoke of the possibility of having a batting coach appointed to the squad and getting down a sports psychologist to speak to the players especially the batsmen as such a move had proved very effective with players of the senior team.

Sandy Gordon, a noted sports psychologist was got down on the recommendation of Moody to talk to the senior players before the start of the West Indies series.

By the end of the Bangladesh Test series national captain Marvan Atapattu owed his team's success over both countries in the Test series and over India in the IOC one-day triangular to the few sessions they had with Gordon. "Sandy came out with a couple of suggestions and our minds were refreshed after that," said Atapattu.

So far the national selectors have given exposure to 30 players in the Sri Lanka 'A' squad against the five Test-playing nations who have toured the country during the year.