Feb 12 2009
Finally, Jayawardane Realizes What He Deserves
The recent news is that the Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardane has offered to quit from captaincy once the test series against Pakistan gets over. This was something that I in particular was expecting after the doldrums what he created in the recently concluded one day series against India. I would without any doubt say that Mahela Jayawardane is to a very greater extent to be blamed for his team’s debacle in the series. And this was not all for, in his captaincy, Sri Lankan team was even found to succumb against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. And Sri Lanka even lost a match against Bangladesh during the course of Mahela’s captaincy.
Had it not been for his own decision to quit as the skipper of Sri Lankan cricket team, the selectors would have done that job after a series or two. By announcing his retirement, he made the selectors job even more easier. My earlier post titled “Think B4 Boasting : Murali ” had cited some hints asking for the skipper Mahela Jayawardane to step down from captaincy. And this happened just after a day of me writing this post. Not only Mahela Jayawardane but also his predecessors namely Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu did the same mistake what Mahela did.
All the aforementioned captains went to take on the opposition with their full fledged team, be it against a strong opposition like Australia or against a weak one like Bangladesh. The common match winners would include Mahela himself along with Kumara Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vass. It is recently that Ajantha Mendis has joined the group. And someone like Michael Vandort, Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof would hardly make any difference to the team. Hardly has the above combination been dropped fro the playing eleven. It is only now that Chaminda Vass didn’t figure out in the squad.
This probably would be owing to some sort of injury. And after the world cup 2007, Sanath Jayasuriya is found to warm the benches. Otherwise, when it comes to the remaining names, it is all the same. Neither is there any difference in the batting order nor any chances taken by the skipper to rest some senior player and try out with a younger leg.Even in the series against India, all Mahela did was to ensure that Muralitharan got his wicket number 503 no matter what happened to the series. Mahela never made up his mind to rest Murali even against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe fearing defeat at the hands of these teams.
It would not be a surprise even if the successor to Mahela Jayawardane follows his footsteps. As long as there are players like Jayasuriya, Murali and Vass the Sri Lankan team can prove something. It would be the day when these lads retire from cricket that the Sri Lankan team would be kicking itself. That day is not too far off I believe.
