Yet another series. Yet another embarrassing defeat! Vanishing all the hopes of individual brilliance of Kusal Perera in the test series, Sri Lanka batsmen faltered miserably in the ongoing ODI series against South Africa, that too without any fight!
It was all too familiar for Sri Lanka! No batsmen except for Kusal Mendis and allrounder Isuru Udana, could manage a score over fifty in four matches. Yet again, Sri Lanka bowlers could not turn the match by a reasonable bowling performance! The losing margins in all four matches suggest, it was an mismatch. It’s like, only South Africa were playing for a win!
So, the most obvious question after another dreadful series loss, is that has time arrived for Sri Lanka’s high profile Coach Chandika Hathurusingha to resign gracefully, before facing the humiliation of being sacked?
Hailed as a ‘Messiah’ in December 2017, Hathurusingha has turned a ‘curse’ in March 2019. The Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) has already ordered him to return to Sri Lanka after the fifth and final ODI and there is a strong possibility that he will be sacked altogether before the World Cup!
On January 16, Cricket Age had exposed how Hathurasingha charged a whopping 60,000 USD from the SLC for just an assessment report of the national team. More shockingly, as per his contract, Hathurusingha is entitled to get 1,20,000 USD in a year for submitting two reports!
After that expose by Cricket Age, entire local media, fans, supporters came to know how Hathurasingha has been looting Sri Lanka Cricket!
However, forget about money, the bigger issue is that whether Sri Lanka is getting benefited under Hathurusingha or not?
Cricket Age has the access of Hathurusingha’s contract. And it shows that Hathurusingha has completely failed in his ‘Job Function’ As a national Coach of Sri Lanka!
Planning and strategizing for the national team : One of most important job function of Hathurasingha is to plan and strategies for the team. This is the area, where Hathurusingha has failed miserably. In last one year, Sri Lanka, in all three formats, could never played with a strategy or planning. As a result, just one ODI away from the World Cup, Sri Lanka is lacking established openers, middle order batsman and most importantly a captain, who can lead them, bring back them on winning track.
Hathurusingha’s another job function says he is responsible for drawing gameplans during matches. These days, Sri Lanka hardly has any game plan against any opposition! Hathurusingha shows no plan, no strategy, when opponents starts to apply pressure on the team.
Preparing the Sri Lanka squad for tours, both physically and mentally : This is another area, where millions dollars paid coach failed miserably! It has become a pattern Now, in ever series, tournament, three to four Sri Lanka players get injured – before the series or during the series. Even in the recently two test match series against Australia, fast bowlers Suranga Lakmal, Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera were ruled out with the injuries! There is no mental toughness in the players as well. During the ongoing ODI series against South Africa, most of the batsmen were unable to handle the match situation and threw their wickets away by playing false strokes!
Guiding team spirit among the players and motivating them to be resultoriented : The lesser we talk about this is better! This is the area where team is lacking the most. As allrounder Thisara Perera’s recently leaked letter has already exposed the dirty politics within the team to the world cricket, there is no team spirit in the dressing room right now. All the players are playing for themselves and there is no unity or willingness to win for the country, as per Perera’s letter itself says.
More seriously, Hathurusingha has created an atmosphere for himself, where everyone has had some issues with him. The SLC administration is not backing him and wants to sack him immediately. The Sri Lanka Cricket fans have realized that he is doing nothing good for the team. Most importantly, he has not in good terms with his players even. As Cricket Age had published two days ago itself, two senior players, including a former captain, have refused to Captain the team for the world cup, if Hathurasingha remains as coach.
Here are few blunders, that we’re committed by Hathurusingha during last few months :
1. Appointing Angelo Mathews as the ODI captain
Though officially deciding and appointing the captain is a duty of the selection committee, it is well known that Hathurusinghe had unofficial say on most decisions taken by the previous selection committee, headed by Labrooy. Angelo’s assignment was such a decision. When Hathurusinghe took over, the captain in ODI team was Thisara Perera and he was the successor of a string of captains not less than five. First thing Hathurusinghe needed was a permanent captain. However, it was not easy. That time there was hardly any player who held a permanent place in the team and all probable leaders in the core have been tested and failed. Meanwhile, Chandimal was doing reasonably well in test cricket, but he had lost his charm in ODI cricket. Two options seemed to be Angelo and Chandimal. The man who held a permanent place in the team, Angelo was awarded the captaincy, despite the fact that he was the leader who shepherded the team when it touched the lowest point in SL ODI cricket history – a Series loss to Zimbabwe in 2016.
2. Involvement in team selection
When Hathurusinghe took over, he asked for a post in the selection panel which he held in his stint in Bangladesh as well. However the constitution of SLC did not permit that movement and yet he was officially awarded powers in team selection within the tour. That’s where, Hathurusingha had started to act like one man army of Sri Lanka team. He started ignoring everyone, including team management, manager and selectors as well.
3. Sacking and Axing of Angelo Mathews
This was the most doubtful decision took by Hathurusinghe in this period and it may be the reason for the current development around him. After Asia Cup defeat, Angelo was sacked from the captaincy and then dropped from the Odis giving to his fitness issues. Angelo and most believed that it was hathurusinghe who is behind the scene. Angelo took it personally and his Millions of fans also thought on the same lines.
4. Poor Handling of Media
This this the worst part of Hathurusinghe. As a Sri Lankan, he had to know that media can make or break a person. The arrogance he showed towards media, proved the final nail in his coffin.
Fittingly, due to all these blunders and continues poor show of the team, Hathurusingha has now left with no supporter! Even though, few of his ardent supporter writers are putting all the blame on SLC for first hiring him as a Messiah and now dumping him as a garbage, they must realize that it’s not the fault of SLC. Like any other cricket playing board, SLC also takes decision by considering players and Cricket fans mood. And, it is crystal clear right now, that the mood is against Hathurusingha right now. Forget about anyone else, Now even ardent Sri Lanka Cricket fans and senior players don’t want him to continue as Sri Lanka Coach!
That’s why, the departure of Hathurasingha seems most logical thing for Sri Lanka Cricket. For his own goodwill, credibility and future, Hathurusingha need to realize that the time has arrived for him to resign gracefully!
