What is happening to Sri Lanka cricket?
A couple of months back, Zimbabwe created history on their tour to Sri Lanka, by not only winning their first ODI against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, but also winning their first ever bilateral series against them and recording their first series win against a test playing nation since 2001. Sikandar Raza was one of the heroes of that series for Zimbabwe – read his interview with Read Scoops here.
What followed was India’s tour to Sri Lanka and it got worse for the islanders. India whitewashed the test series 3-0, followed by taking a lead in the ODI series 4-0, with one ODI to be played on 3rd September. It has been a cake walk for India as they have even been giving their benched players chances.
In another part of the world, we have a certain Caribbean Premier League (CPL T20) taking place, where former Sri Lankan cricketer and legendary wicket-keeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara is captaining the Jamaica Tallawahs – currently second on the points table and already qualified for the play-offs stage.
It has been 2 years since Sangakkara last played a test for Sri Lanka, 2 and a half years since his last ODI, and 3 years since his last T20I. However, the 39-year old is enjoying a purple patch at the CPL, and most other T20 leagues he plays throughout the year.
Not only is he captaining well, but is also scoring a lot of runs against high quality bowling attacks. Sri Lanka are lacking on both a good, tactical captain, as well as players who are contributing on a consistent basis. Let’s look at Sanga’s last 3 innings at the CPL – 74* vs Stars, 53 vs T&T Riders, 69 vs Patriots (a total of 284 runs in the tournament so far).
Look at him go:
Sangakkara six superb hit pic.twitter.com/LMQt0snBr4
— CPL T20 (@CPL) August 30, 2017
Sri Lanka have been appointing captains like Upul Tharanga, Chamara Kapugedara & Lasith Malinga in the ongoing ODI series against India, all three of whom don’t have fixed spots in the national team. Even though Sanga is turning 40 in a couple of months, how good would it be if he comes out of retirement to help his country, which is going through a very rough phase at the moment?
Though we know this is not going to happen, do comment and let us know what you think 😛
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