Sri Lanka’s former ace paceman and current Head Coach of the Kandurata Maroons team Chaminda Vaas was over the moon brimming with confidence when he addressed journalists prior to Kandurata Maroons’ departure to India to take part in the Champions League Tournament.
Having qualified as champions in the domestic Super Fours tournament and having so much of experience, Vaas was confident that the Sri Lankan domestic team will have a good outing at Champions League.
He was confident of the team’s batting strength, backed up with good bowlers – in both spin and pace departments. In his squad he had proven players who had plenty of international experience.
Furthermore he was of the view that the combination Kandurata Maroons had been good enough for them to go a fair distance in the competition. But alas, Kandurata Maroons made a first round exit in the tournament much to the dismay of local cricket fans.
The best outfit that Sri Lanka had sent for a Champions League returned home having lost all three games.
The batting looked good with star batsmen Kumar Sangakkara holding the center stage. He proved his worth with scores of 61 not out, 13 and 44. Much was expected from the willow of skipper Lahiru Thirimanne and he scored 54 off 39 deliveries during an 89 run stand with Sangakkara.
Dilhara Lokuhettige had a bright spot in the tournament with 51 runs and six wickets under his belt. The silver lining was the power packed innings of 77 off 56 deliveries by opener Upul Tharanga, laced with 6 fours and 3 sixes in the second match against Otago.
Sri Lanka’s final encounter against Faisalabad Wolves was a dead rubber. It was of little significance as both teams had been knocked out of the competition. Sri Lanka lost that game too and made an embarrassing early exit from the competition after much hype.
During the qualifying round matches, ex-Sri Lanka cricketers Thilina Kandamby and Chamara Silva looked to be spent forces. So were the spinners Ajantha Mendis and Suraj Randiv. As for the pace bowlers, only Nuwan Kulasekara impressed.
The tournament started on a controversial note. Sangakkara was in two minds whether to represent his IPL franchise Hyderabad Sunrisers or his local domestic team Kandurata Maroons. He earned the respect of his countrymen by choosing to play for Kandurata and in the process going through a massive financial loss.
To add insult to injury, the technical committee of the tournament ruled Rangana Herath ineligible to take part in the competition as he had not been in the initial Kandurata squad and had only come in place of the injured Dhammika Prasad.
Sri Lanka Cricket once again failed to handle the issue properly. Herath, one of our respected senior cricketers was made to fly to India and there he was told that he can’t play the tournament. That’s not the way SLC should safeguard their cricketers. SLC should have in the first place checked with the Technical Committee whether they could include Herath. Sadly, accountability is a word not known to those running SLC.
In the end, however, coach Chaminda Vaas and skipper Lahiru Thirimanne had to eat their words. Let’s however, remember that cricket is a funny game. Maybe next time they can do a better job.
Rex Wijewardene
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