RIP SL cricket thread

[uvelocity]

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[benchmark00]

That's a great picture of MacGilla.

Might take it down to Officeworks and get it blown up and put on a canvas.

[Crazy Sam]

Am serious btw.

[AlanJLegend]

Things in cricket are usually never quite as bad as they seem. Sri Lanka still have plenty of talent, they'll be fine.

That being said, in the next few years there is going to be a mass exodus of Dilshan/Sanga/Jayawardene/Samaraweera/Herath. I'm hoping for the sake of SL cricket that there are some good batsmen coming through domestic cricket.

[uvelocity]

Originally Posted by benchmark00

That's a great picture of MacGilla.

Might take it down to Officeworks and get it blown up and put on a canvas.

yeah it is hey spewing it didnt stir you up

"Stuey told me, 'We're gonna win this'," said Bracken

Final twist turns the Blues' way - Cricket - www.smh.com.au

[Himannv]

May as well rename the thread to "Doom and Gloom".

Yeah, things don't look promising at all on the test cricket front, but we've never been particularly good in tests anyway. Usually we rely on one or two key players to perform with some measure of consistency while we hope for the best with the others. With some of these key players retiring soon, a period of transition is obviously on the horizon.

I like how we're giving one or two younger players a chance in the current test and I'm sure some of these batsmen will be eased into the team soon enough and the process will be gradual. I'm also not concerned about Herath retiring as we have a few young spinners who could step up and perform reasonably well.

The real problem is the pace bowling department and this has been the case for quite a while now. Kula isn't bad, but besides him, I don't see who else could really be good enough for test cricket. We badly need a top quality pace bowler or two to be a decent test side both in the present and the near future.

The lack of proper infrastructure is obviously a concern as mentioned in the OP, but this has been the case for years. Outside of school cricket, people just don't care about the game here. Club cricket just doesn't have the resources, quality and support needed to consistently produce test standard players.

I think we could still be decent in home conditions but away from home will be tough due to the pace friendly pitches we are likely to encounter. I'm sure we'll be fine in T20s and ODIs, so that's something.

[uvelocity]

if you have crap pace bowlers pick 4 spinners. why do they insist on playing cricket the same way as everyone else

[Himannv]

Originally Posted by uvelocity

if you have crap pace bowlers pick 4 spinners. why do they insist on playing cricket the same way as everyone else

It might work at home and we usually go in with two spinners there. This tactic wouldn't be all that helpful on pitches outside of the subcontinent.

Unfortunately SLC lack the balls to make our pitches a proper dust bowl. Instead they try to please all the whiny ****s who bitch about the pitch when they come here and struggle.

[uvelocity]

nah mate, some of the "pitches" that are served up across the SC from time to time are not conducive to cricket. even myself as a bowler, I don't want to see pitches which are inconsistent from the get go. It just happens that higher bounce usually accompanies truer bounce and doesn't help spin early doors.

But on selection, there is no reason even on a true pitch you couldn't pick only spin bowlers. if they are better than the quicker options they will be tighter, and create wickets even out of frustration rather than bowling poor bowlers who leak runs and lack the skill to bowl to a plan and get top level batsmen out. Pakistan is another team that I can't get my head around, playing a bloke who will bowl 5-10 overs per test, it's a waste of space.

[Crazy Sam]

SL would be better off with four half decent spinners then what they have had in this series.

[Himannv]

Originally Posted by uvelocity

nah mate, some of the "pitches" that are served up across the SC from time to time are not conducive to cricket. even myself as a bowler, I don't want to see pitches which are inconsistent from the get go. It just happens that higher bounce usually accompanies truer bounce and doesn't help spin early doors.

But on selection, there is no reason even on a true pitch you couldn't pick only spin bowlers. if they are better than the quicker options they will be tighter, and create wickets even out of frustration rather than bowling poor bowlers who leak runs and lack the skill to bowl to a plan and get top level batsmen out. Pakistan is another team that I can't get my head around, playing a bloke who will bowl 5-10 overs per test, it's a waste of space.

Fair enough. I admit I'm a bit hard-arsed about pitches generally and dislike players complaining about them when they're hard to bat on. Not having a go at foreign players either as Sri Lankans are guilty of this sort of thing more often than not. I think very highly of players like Clarke and Hussey who batted incredibly on some very difficult pitches down here. For me it's the mark of a great batsman to be able to play well even on difficult surfaces and conditions.

Regarding coming into a test match with four spinners on foreign pitches, I'm not sure how effective it would be although I admit it might be worth a try. Herath is probably our best test spinner at the moment and he hasn't exactly been a massive threat in Australia so I'm unsure how well the others would do on that sort of surface. I think the selection of all these fast bowlers is partially based on some hope that they would one day turn out to be good test bowlers. It's the "Rome wasn't built in a day" type of approach but I'm not particularly confident that it would work.

[Neil Pickup]

Originally Posted by smalishah84

Wrong meme. Should be Fry.

[Scaly piscine]

I do worry about the health of Test cricket.

India are increasingly pathetic. Sri Lanka have a pathetic bowling line-up. Pakistan are a decent side but can't play at home, New Zealand will be regularly humiliated. West Indies are ordinary. Bangladesh are still Bangladesh and Zimbabwe lost to New Zealand.

The emphasis on shorter-form cricket makes me wonder whether some of these sides will raise their game in the next few years. We need more competitive series even if ultimately teams end up losing regularly. Too many games are a no contest, increasingly players and team cbf fighting it out in Test cricket.

[Cevno]

Bit of a overreaction this.

Wasn't India worse in Australia or equally bad ?

[benchmark00]

Already had the funeral for Indian cricket.