Sri Lanka's one-day cricket slumps badly

Sri Lanka has slumped to No. 6 position in the ICC one day international world rankings, just weeks before the 2007 World Cup tournament. No doubt this slump would be jolt to everybody who has been dreaming of Sri Lanka's success at the forthcoming 'Cricket Olympiad'.

Having lost the four-match one day series 2-1, with one no decision, Sri Lanka will have to look for new strategies if they are to make any impact at the forthcoming mega event.

After a rain-washed 'curtain raiser' game in Kolkata, Sri Lanka had a nail-biting five-run win in the next game at Rajkot to take a vital 1-0 lead. They had to win one of the two remaining games to seal the series.

But it turned out to be a nightmare for Sri Lanka as India came back strongly to emerge victorious.

The hosts won the third tie in Margo by five wickets before brining Sri Lanka cricket to its lowest ebb in recent times - with a smashing seven wicket win in the final game.

Sri Lanka's standards in world cricket have been deteriorating during the past couple of years. Our team's ICC World rankings in both Tests and ODIs have shown a pathetic slump.

In mid 2005, we were second only to World champions in world ODI rankings. But from No.2 position, our one day rankings went down to the seventh place by December, 2005.

Though Sri Lanka Cricket has talked much on the development of the game and spent millions of rupees on various projects, results of those exercises are hardly visible.

By the time the present Interim Committee of the SLC was appointed by then Sports Minister in April, 2005, Sri Lanka was placed second in the ICC world ODI rankings.

But within the next eight months, it had a drastic fall to be seventh by December, 2005. From a convincing position of being a runner-up to World Champions Australia, our team went to a position which only put them ahead of minnows West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

There have been a few creditable wins tasted by Sri Lanka in recent times but we lacked constancy, most vital ingredient that is necessary to make a champion outfit.

The talent of our cricketers alone could not take Sri Lanka cricket to greater heights. Several other factors should be combined with that talent in order to produce results.

There should be an intelligent coach with a proven track record to show our cricketers the right direction. Then there should be an experienced advisory committee that comprises ex-national cricketers to handle technical part of the game.

There should be an experienced panel that handles development of the game at provincial level.

Above all, there should be an experienced executive committee to drive the Sri Lanka Cricket in the right direction. At present, we lack right people in most of those areas.

Sri Lanka will have to beat all odds if we are to make any impact at the World Cup. We have a talented set of cricketers but to get the best out of them, there should be a strong coaching and administrative back up.

The excuses given by skipper Mahela Jayawardena after losing the one day series in India are questionable. Before the series, he said his team's recent poor performances against India will not dampen their World Cup preparations.

Jayawardena said that his team has a score to settle with the Indians and vowed that his much improved team would bounce back with a vengeance.

He said that the team is more determined and they need to rectify that and put it in the right direction as that was the place they need to be competitive and performing well. But that was not so.

Jayawardena was on record as saying that they are focused and determined to win the series. "We are a determined outfit now than what we were a year and a half ago. The relevance of the earlier series is not to be considered", the Lankan skipper said in his pre-series interview.

But the Lankans failed to deliver the goods. Though our team's solitary win after several tense moments, the Indians had two convincing wins thereafter. India showed that they are the better team and kept their morale high with two excellent victories against Sri Lanka.

But Jayawardena said their defeats was a wake up call. It is an irresponsible statement. The Lankans should have woken up long before. This is not the time to wake up and prepare.

With less than a month away from the commencement of the mega event, we should have been in better shape by now.

However, as Jayawardena said, if the Lankans could learn a lesson and be determined in defeat. They have the ability to deliver the goods.