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Sri Lanka Thread

shehanwije

School Boy/Girl Captain
Great article in the Sunday Times
Shehan
_________________

Logic of the jungle
By SR Paranavitharne
22 April 2007

There has been a lot of hocus-pocus about a collective Sri Lankan team decision to leave out two of their strike bowlers Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan during their super eight encounter against Australia. At this juncture both teams involved in his match has already booked their passage into the semi-final and then the out come of this spat would only create a psychological impact on either team given the chance of a re-run on a future date during the same tournament.

The point lies there. During the last century or a little more cricket has evolved from a Sunday afternoon summer past time of some Englishmen, to a multimillion dollar industry where the word winning means everything. However please do not get misled by the ‘lone’ word winning. Winning a meaningless by-game is not what they mean by everything. Everything means the ‘plum’ – in short The Cricket World Cup.

Then the next argument is that when it comes to winning at all costs one just cannot afford to bang your head on every lamp post that you come across. There are ways and means of tackling given situations.

On a battlefield, a tactical withdrawal does not mean that you have given up the war and are running away. It is only the usage of a ploy so that you can come back with full force on another occasion and take your foe by surprise.

It is no secret that prior to an international contest between two nations a lot of brain storming and planning of strategies go on behind the curtains. Then just imagine prior to a game of this nature the load of inputs that can go through.

Brand of cricket
When one takes the brand of cricket that Australia is playing at present –especially at this World Cup there is no argument that they are playing to a plan and are in peak form. Then strategically if a team senses that there are chances that they will have to meet them on a latter date at a more crucial juncture of the tournament isn’t it all but right to an aspiring team to take precautionary measures of a psychological nature?

In Australia’s view point the two countries have not met each other since the VB tri-nation final that was played in the latter part of 2005. Then the best thing that they would have liked was to have a free run against the type of bowlers of Muraltharan and Vaas who they must be considering as their main threats in the whole tournament. Then just imagine the amount of plotting that must have gone behind the Australian curtains of planning out ways of nullifying those threats by demoralizing them before they meet if given a second time. Ironically when the Australians found out that their pre-game plans had gone awry, it must have been a very irritating experience for them. So for a team like Sri Lanka making a tactical withdrawal of that nature can be understood and must be accepted.

On Friday Australia playing a game that had no bearing on the final outcome of the tournament fired all guns under no duress to take revenge from New Zealand who handed them over a 3-0 humble pie during the Chappell-Hadlee series. However had there been a stake at hand in that game, the Australians may not have taken all those liberties with the bat while at the crease.
However all these strategic moves made by a top cricketing nation in a very serious tournament has been misconstrued by some. For instance the brother of the failed Indian Cricket coach Greg Chappell – Ian, has gone to the extent of calling this move made by Sri Lanka a type a match fixing and the ICC intervention on the matter. Following him was another apologist who loves to play fiddle with the white man – former West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding. He said – “Sri Lanka`s decision to rest two key players for their Super Eights clash against Australia had opened the game to further corruption.

Sri Lanka, already missing injured strike bowler Lasith Malinga, omitted star bowlers Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas from the seven-wicket defeat at Grenada`s National Stadium. "I think what it does is allow people who know what is happening to get a head start if they are gambling," Holding was quoted as saying.

"Before the game started, Australia was 2-1 on. As soon as the toss went to air, when they (betters) found out, Australia went to 5-1 on because Muralitharan wasn`t playing, Malinga wasn`t playing, Vaas wasn’t playing," the former paceman told `The Australian`.

Other apologists
Besides these two there have been other apologists local and foreign. But the final argument is ----- Is this the only occasion that a country has used a ploy to take advantage of a situation? During the 2005 VB series when Sri Lanka and Australia last met didn’t the Australians adopt a rotational policy? During the 1999 World Cup – Once again Australia, the favourites, struggled, at the initial stages losing to Pakistan and New Zealand, and thereafter they needed to win every match to avoid elimination. However, their game against West Indies was a well calculated farce. Taking advantage of the complex points system Australia too aimed for a narrow win to ensure that both the West Indies and they went through at New Zealand's expense. Chasing a paltry West Indian total of 111 runs, Australia scored 12 runs in 10 overs. If you do not call this a ploy then what would you call it, can we ask Mr. Chappell, Mr. Holding and other apologists? Then at the same time Bangladesh's defeat of Pakistan sparked celebrations back home in the country east of India ... but there were deep suspicions cast over that result too. Just a minute -- there comes into my mind – weren’t you the captain of Australia who got your kid brother to roll the ball under-arm in the last ball of a match just to stave off defeat at the hands of the kiwis way back in history?

Finally when the Lion roars the animals in the jungle knows it is a warning of another victim to fall. Right now on the Lions trail there are remains of Tigers, Kiwis, Invading White masters and disgruntled neighbours. However as the fable goes there is a lesson that the Kangaroo must learn. The lion never kills when it is not hungry.
 

JASON

Cricketer Of The Year
They should be scoring maybe 20 runs at the end of the innings if the top order do their job properly, I'm not expecting them to be like Michael Hussey and consistently score 30-40 runs off 25 balls.

Arnold's 20 off 20 was perhaps one of the deciding factors in Sri Lanka's victory over England, while his 97 run partnership with Dilshan almost got Sri Lanka up to a defendable score against South Africa.
As Chaminda has quite clearly stated, both these guys are struggling to finish off the innings during the slog overs. They are scoring 20 or 30 at a modest strike rate and even with that do not stay till the end of the innings. You really need a 50-60 a la 'Shane Watson innings' the other day to take a modest score into a match winning score.

Both the guys have got out during the middle of overs 40 to 50 leaving numbers 7-8 and 9 to tackle the last 5 overs or so after having made a mediocre 20 or 30 off 40-50 balls. Pretty average , if you ask me.

When Cmara Silva came in at 6 he was doing this brilliantly but in the absence of Atapattu he has gone to 5 and with the way SL batting has gone he is batting from Mid to early 20th overs having to play a longer innings which he seems to be temperamentally not suited to from his World Cup performance in the Super 8 stages . The SL batting woes are quite serious and this unfortunately will be what lets SL down in the coming games.
 

JASON

Cricketer Of The Year
And by the way I don't pay too much attention to rubbish SL journos who rant and rabble and write long bloody essays with lot of nonsense.:ph34r:
:laugh:
 

shehanwije

School Boy/Girl Captain
SL World Cup Win - Downloadable Ringtone

The great ringtone is available for download now...it has Tony Greig's excitable tones from the memorable '96 finals, set to a baila (Dingiri Digale) backdrop. Serious goose bump territory...handy to have on mobile in next few days.

http://www.mediafire.com/?8kdm4o00zgt
 

Mahindinho

State Vice-Captain
Not exactly the most unbiased article, was it? I think the writer completely lost it for a paragraph in the middle, too.

I just can't wait until the big match gets underway. I'm prepared for disappointment, but hoping for a glorious match and even more glorious SL victory.
 

chaminda_00

Hall of Fame Member
Wow Fernando kinda lost the plot today :blink:
Disappointing really, showed so much potential at the start of the tournment. But once he got those bowling yipes back, there is no stopping those wides, no balls and four/six balls. Atleast Maharoof got in some form against Ireland, but his always been a minnow basher.
 

JASON

Cricketer Of The Year
Disappointing really, showed so much potential at the start of the tournment. But once he got those bowling yipes back, there is no stopping those wides, no balls and four/six balls. Atleast Maharoof got in some form against Ireland, but his always been a minnow basher.
I also think Rudi jumped on him right from the start and did not allow the guy a chance to settle in...... Rudi's conduct makes me suspicious as to whether he had been commissioned to act on Fernando even before the game .... Rudi's failure to give the guy a respite between the 2 warnings, makes me suspect he had been pre-conditioned to act the way he did....
 

Lostman

State Captain
i was really pissed off by the first warning, because the ball was comming back at him. He was trying to field it.
 

chaminda_00

Hall of Fame Member
Its a Semi Final, the pressure gets to umpires. You kind have got to expect them to make a few mistakes. As much it might piss you off, they are only humans.
 

JASON

Cricketer Of The Year
i was really pissed off by the first warning, because the ball was comming back at him. He was trying to field it.
But Lostman, Dilhara has been warned previously in the Super 8 match against NZ as well. The guy would've been better off to be wary off this and avert it as best as possible , instead of doing anything that would cause the umpire to get onto him .

He has now created an impossible scenario for the SL team management and SL would almost certainly have to take the option of not playing him given the risk of ending up 1 bowler short in the Final.
 

chaminda_00

Hall of Fame Member
But Lostman, Dilhara has been warned previously in the Super 8 match against NZ as well. The guy would've been better off to be wary off this and avert it as best as possible , instead of doing anything that would cause the umpire to get onto him .

He has now created an impossible scenario for the SL team management and SL would almost certainly have to take the option of not playing him given the risk of ending up 1 bowler short in the Final.
Im pretty sure there is a clean slate after every match, warnings don't care on to the next match. If he plays i doubt he will bowl more then 4-6 overs, as he will be getting smashed anyway.
 

StumpMic

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Regardless of how Fernando handled the whole warning thing I was very impressed with how the senior members of the team "mediated" and handled the situation. Jayawardene immediately came after the second warning and talked to Fernando. At the end of the over Jayasuriya was talking to the umpire too and generally calming the situation down. Then they did the second smart thing and made Dilhara bowl around the wicket to avoid getting kicked out. Removing him after he had bowled the required minimum number of overs was a good move too.
 

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