What a thrilling world cup final it was. Till the last ball was bowled it was not sure who would win. I think India played better cricket so they deserved to be the winning team. Although Pakistan bowlers contained the Indian batsmen during the first 18 overs with very tight bowling, in the last two overs bowled by Arafat (fifth bowler) and Tanvir some 27 runs were scored and that made the difference. Most of the Pakistani batsmen also played some loose shots and gifted their wickets. So congratulation to Dhoni and his young team.
 
I think we can learn a lot from this WC. As Aravinda mentioned, our team selected was not the best for this kind of tournament. This is one of the main reasons for our early exit. At the beginning of the tournament we thought that you do not need T20 experts but players having good experience on ODI format can easily adjust to the demanding requirements of this fast game.  
 
These are some thoughts which I think can help to develop a good T20 team for SL.
 
1.      Aged players who are very slow on the field are not good enough. What about having an upper age limit (in general but not as a rule) for T20 players..
 
2.      Tharanga must be dropped from T20 format as he has very limited shots to play and he wastes too many deliveries at the beginning of an inning (by playing and missing). That will not help the team to build up a healthy run rate.
 
3.      If Kumar has to play he must open the inning where he can score quick runs from his cricketing shots when the field restrictions are in place. Mahela should bat at no 3.
 
4.      A young attacking opening batsman should be groomed for the opening slot. Dilruwan and Kaushal (keeper) are good prospects. We can also develop another opening bat who must play through the inning. Mahela Udawatta and Vandort are two good prospects and they are also two technically correct batsmen and do not have to take risks in their approach.
 
5.      Both Chamara and Dilshan has to improve their game. Both of them are quick in running between wickets but they must try to score occasional fours and sixes to keep the RR healthy. They must improve their shot selection as well,so that they will not gift their wickets after some short bursts.
 
6.      Mubarak is the find of the tour, but he must not try to hit out at everything. I think both Dilshan and Chamara can learn few things from him if they look at the way he batted in two or three occasions.
 
7.      Bowling all rounder: I would not think Maharoof is a good prospect as long as he won’t improve on his line and length. He bowls too many lenth or short balls offering width to the batsmen. We must develop a fifth bowler (preferably a bowling allrounder) who can bowl yorker length beliveries consistently. Fast bowling allrounders who can be tried are Weeraratna, Prasad, Kosala Kulasekera and Hasantha Fernando. They must be specially trained to bowl yokers and full length deliveries as that is the only way a fifth bowler  can survive in this format if he is not fast enough to threaten the batsman.
 
8.      Spinner: Assuming that Murali is not going to plat any T20 matches we must have a leading spinner in the team. Out of the experienced spinners Loku is the best player for this position as his batting exploits will be a bonus.Beside he has a very healthy SR in the ODI matches he has played so far. I still cannot believe why we played all the five matches in this tournament without a main spinner. Another young spinning allrounder also should be groomed as a back up spinner.
 
9.      Fast bowling; I think Vaas , Mqalinga and Dilhara have done their duties perfectly in the tournament. But we must find a yound swing/seam bowler to replace Vaas at some stage. Velegedera has done well during the A team tour but I wonder whether he is a good fielder.
 
10.Mahela can lead the young T20 team as he has all the ingredients to do that .
 
11. One of the most important things is the type of wickets. I do not think slow/low wickets in SL will not help in any way for T20 farmat. I appreciate Gavaskar’s comments yesterday at the end of the match. He said South Africans have done an excellent job in producing some sporty tracks having good pace , bounce and that helped both the bowlers as well as batsmen equally. He hinted that tracks produced during the last WC in WI were not that good.
 
     We must prepare fast and bouncy pitches  to develop T20 game. We have seen in so many occasions on replays that some balls were going inches above the bails, and such deliveries on our tracks are definitely would end up with success to the bowlers. So my prediction is T20 matches played on SL tracks will be very low scoring affairs with the bowlers getting undue advantages (and not the batsmen) due to the slowness and low nature of the pitches.  
 
 
Susantha J.

SHS,
 
I think we have discussed about Kapugedera’s issue over a long period in this forum.  The national selectors have given him plenty of opportunities to come out of his bad run of low scores and prove that he is performing well again to be selected. He might have had some one or two good performances in that last Australian tour. But that’s all history. What matters is his current form.
 
Both Kapu and Mubarak are trying for the same position in our ODI team. One may argue on the basis that T 20 experience should not be counted for ODI matches. But we must not forget that our selectors do not have a proper policy in picking players for the three versions of the game according to the requirements of different formats and the capabilities of the players to satisfy these requirements. They just pick the squad from a pool of 20 odd contracted players. There is some criticism going at the moment on the team selection for T 20 WC also.  They will pick Mubarak instead of Kapu for the Australian tour. How ever Mubarak’s heroics in this WC cannot be just ignored and even the TV commentators talked very highly about this. I do not have any objection if they pick Mubarak ahead of Kapu for the Australian tour.  
 
After the UK tour Kapu has played in 4 innings in the under 23 domestic matches. He had one good knock of scoring 96 in 133 balls with 10 fours and 3 sixes. It’s a good performance considering the match is a long version game. So guy could be back in the form, but since he is not picked for the England matches most probably he may not get an opportunity in the near future to prove his form against international opponents. But definitely he is a player for the future (initially for no 6 position in the ODI team) and I wish him all the luck and expect him to perform very well at least in the domestic matches where selectors may once again give him a chance.
 
This is a good lesson for all young cricketers. They must do their best to perform well if they get opportunities. Cos more and more young players are coming up with good performances  and the competetion is growing, which is good for SL cricket.
 
Susantha J.

Pundith,
 
Now to answer your question on Sanath. If you look at my suggestion of grooming two openers (either Dilruwan and Kaushal for one slot) and either Mahela or Vandort for the second slot one should realize that I did not mean to include Sanath for our future T20 team. However one point is clear. We cannot drop both openers at the same time and bring in two new openers. I am also not suggesting that Sanath should be dropped from the team immediately as you have proposed. He should be in the team (provided he performs well and is physically fit) for some time until we have groomed a player to replace him. Problem is this process is not taking place although every one talks about this subject over and over. Also it is a fact that both  the captain and coach may have other ideas that Sanath should play in every match as an opener. This decision of having some transition period for Sanath before his retirement from ODI should be taken by the selectors as well as captain and the coach. (unless Sanath takes a decision to call it a day). We must groom a new opener during this transition period.
 
My suggestion for the WC from day one was to drop Tharanga and let Kumar open with Sanath. This should also be a part of the contingency plan of grooming an opener who can replace Sanath at some stage (definitely before the next WC). Why did you mention that there isn’t any prospective opening batsman in the squad selected for England matches? Selectors have done the right thing to pick the most promising opener Dilruwan who was also the leading run scorer on the UK tour.
 
However the problem is will he be given the opportunity to play in the final XI(England matches). I doubt very much. They will definitely play Tharanga again with Sanath. Let us not repeat the same mistake again. Dilruwan can open with Sanath during the first few matches and then Sanath can drop down to the middle order during the last two matches. During the transition period Kumar can open with Dilruwan. This may be for sometime until other five batters will be performing well and strength of the batting line up has improved. If you look at both Chamara and Dilshan they are still underperforming. I cannot remember when either of them last scored a fifty in a match. Both of them are enjoying an easy ride in the middle order cos the selectors are not introducing any promising players who have performed for the A team. Both Chamara and Dilshan must improve their game. In the WC Mahela and Mubarak are the only two batsmen who performed well apart from Sanath. With this situation we cannot even think of dropping Sanath from the team.  
 
Some members in this forum want to drop Sanath immediately from the team. You are talking about the reflexes of a 38 yr old player you think is weak. But can you place the 22 yr old Tharanga anywhere close to Sanath on that aspect? In my opinion the weakest link in the team at the moment is Tharanga and not Sanath. Chamara and Dilshan are not that better from Tharanga. Yes Sanath failed in three matches. Is it a big deal? What about the failures of other batsmen (consider a score of less than 25 runs as a failure) Tharanga failed in four matches, Kumar in four, Chamara in four, Dilshan in three. Only Mahela and Mubarak failed in one match each. So why do you point your finger only at Sanath? You don’t want to blame Kumar, Tharanga,  Chamara and Dilshan for their failures in the WC? And here are the personal batting statistics of Sanath in this WC.
 
Most runs               -- second 154,     first Mahela 160 runs
Most fours & sixes    – first 71%         second Mubarak 65%
Strike rate              -- second 160%   first  Mubarak 169%
Average                  -- third 30.8        first Mubarak  52.5
Man of the match      – two matches    no other batsman
 
What else can you expect from a 38 year old player when most of other young ones have failed miserably? This is absurd. I agree on one point. Sanath may not have the same reflexes we used to see from him some years back. Yes his age could be a result. But currently he is definitely a much better performer than Chamara, Dilshan and Thranga (may be better than Mubarak).
 
Answering to another question you asked why I mentioned aged players who are slow on the field are not good enough for T20 (young players can perform better)all I can say is we have three players at 38 ,35 and 33 yrs of age(Sanath, Murali and Vaas). All 10 players in a T20 team should be athletic as well as they should be able to dive while chasing a ball in two directions of the path of the travelling ball  while fielding at in field as well as on the boundary line. I would not expect three of the above players to play in T20 matches and sacrifice their careers on playing more important test matches. Comparison of the standard of fielding of the two Indian teams; i.e ODI team in UK( which was pathetic)and T 20 team in SA (which was so good) is a good example.
 
 
Susantha J

Sanath failed in 3 matches in a row, yes he did. So did many others.
Sanath in shorter version of the game is still a real value player with batting, fielding and bowling. sanity should say that he stays in the team. Dropping him for the aussie ODI version of the tour is insanity, whilst dropping him from the test team is sanity with logical reasoning.
 
I would say that Sanath should be left out of the test team to Australia.
 
Ajith

Dear Pundith
 
Even if Sanath fails versus better teams, that should not be a reason for others failing, if that is the case, then its better to drop the all others than dropping Sanath. It is so amatuer if that was the case with the rest of the batters. Every player has to a responsibility and must be held accountabelf ro their own performance. I think these things about heads falling down when Sanath fails are all blwon up stories to create hype. If you ask any player, they will definitely say that star players liek Sanath's. Murali's performances are important, but surely they will never say or admit or even think that they cannot perform or live upto the challenge if the star players dont perform. What is happening is that, when Sanath scores the score flourishes coz of the way he scores and the times he doesnt score the rest of the order gets exposed to play a longer and more mature role for the team, which many times they fail. So thats what needs to be addressed and not the few failures of Sanath in the shorter version of the game.
 
There is too much hype made on Sanath coz of the way he bats and destroys attacks. So when he fails, all onus is put on him, which is wrong. Even in matches where Sanath flourishes, there has been many times a possible 300 odd score is brought down to 250 or 260 due to immature batting from the rest. So the problem is not really Sanath, it has to be the others who have to buckle up and show what they can do with consistency.
 
Sanath massacred the weaker link kenya and then the stronger team New Zealand, who reached the semi's. So I view it as he failed int he latter half of the tournament and with the type of batting that the team wants him to play, there is always a risk of him failing cheaply. Tharanga failed in all matches, so why focus on Sanath's Last 3 inning's.  
 
What I say is the whole team has to take accountability and also take a good look at some of the players, where they have the guts/maturity to take responsibiulity. I still think Dilshan with immense experience do not knwo what to do, whent he side is in trouble or needs him to do some repair work.  
 
Even Mubarak though he smashed Kenyans, wasnt really playing with a cool head int he rest of the games, except versus Australia where he did try to pierce some gaps. But atleast we can say that he is still young though given many chances.
 
Chamara wasnt really uptoit this time around and couldnt do his heroics, what he used to do int hw world up 50 over version.
 
Sanga counlt fit into the 2o over version fo things.
 
Mahela looked brilliant in the first few matches and he too perished in the later matches.
 
So the problem is not Sanath alone. It is actually the rest of the batting that needs to stand up and act with some sort of maturity.
 
 
 
 
And in regard the highly educated person whose response ended with,
 
 
"SL players are the dumbest out of the whole world and that they would never get the drift".
 
What I can say is that, if the lankans were the dumbest then what about the other nations who couldnt stop sri lankans reaching the world cup finals in west indians. they must be even dumber,. What about the  S africans who cannot win any tournament, they must be chickens. Sometimes being educated, needs to be followed up with comon sense.
 
 
And let me also stress that, I support Sanath to be dropped from tests and that is due to his non-performance with the bat as an opener in a 5 day version of the game, while in the shorter version my opnion is different coz he performs much better than some others int he team and also is an allrounder with high value to the team.
 
Thanks
 
Ajith