Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera and the head selector Ashantha de Mel should immediately retire from the Sri Lanka team and make way for a young set of players who can be groomed for the 2023 World Cup.
Lasith Malinga has already announced that he will retire after the current World Cup and likewise Mathews and Thisara Perera should follow him. The performances of these two senior players have been appalling in the World Cup and of what use are they to continue after they failed to take Sri Lanka to the semi finals.
Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews who made just one half century from six games cannot go on for another four years and deprive the grooming of youngsters. Mathews may have taken the most crucial wicket against the West Indies but that was when the outcome of the match had no bearing. It was sheer luck. The primary task of Mathews is to score runs not take wickets. Thisara Perera was a pathetic sight.
Given the culture and the mindset prevalent among the Sri Lankan cricketers and their guardians at Sri Lanka Cricket, the biggest fear is that if these players don’t retire honorably they will continue to be around for the next four years until the 2023 World Cup and the same old story will continue.
And it is most likely that Mathews and Perera will continue as the Selectors are also the same old people over and over again who come in and like the players exploit the good things available before leaving irrespective of what happens to the team. It is the poor fan who becomes the biggest loser in this whole game as it is he who spends his time and money following the team and players.
It is an understanding that everyone who gets into the team or the game’s administration makes the most before leaving while the country and the followers of cricket get nothing to cheer apart from an occasional flash-in-the pan win here and there. The young Avishka Fernando has now shown that experience is not everything needed to win matches even in a World Cup and like him several talented players have fallen by the wayside either badly managed by the Selectors and Management and most importantly Sri Lanka Cricket, the so-called guardians who have become destroyers.
The reason why the head selector Ashantha de Mel should also quit is became he made some highly contentious selections in the picking of Jeewan Mendis from nowhere and the dropping of Dinesh Chandimal.
Chandimal’s presence in the team may not have made a difference but on what grounds was he dropped and Jeewan Mendis picked.
Clive Jayasinghe
Mutwal