He is Chandika Hathurusingha. And he had just taken the job of Sri Lankan national coach. Nicknamed as ”Hathura” among Sri Lankan cricket fans, Hathurusingha is known to be a man of integrity.
In Sinhalese, ”Hathura” translates into ”The Enemy” and the biggest responsibility of Sri Lankan Cricket board – which is not renowned for its integrity – is not to make a ”Hathura” out of Hathurusingha.
On the other hand, Hathurusingha isn’t new to Sri Lankan cricket, or it’s mysteries. He was a part of the same system – as a player and a coach – for over two decades before he left for Australia after being sacked by the previous SLC administration. At the time National Captain Kumar Sangakkara wrote to SLC in almost a pleading tone, asking SLC to consider the service he had done as a coach in Sri Lanka to give him a lenient punishment looking at the World cup (2011) coming up.
SLC did not change their stance. ‘’Hathura’’ left the country and couple of years later coached New South Walse, Australian state, to the Sheffield Shield trophy in the 2013-14 season. He was also the coach of Big Bash team ”Sydney Thunder” at the time. In 2014 Bangladesh appointed him as the Head coach representing Hathurusingha first chance at the international level. And since that appointment, Hathurusingha had taken Bangladesh cricket to a whole new level with the help of his updated knowledge and tactical nous.
Now, Hathurusingha is finally ready to come back after a long wait. While Hathurusingha is a proven coach, there is not a whole lot any coach could do without the full support from his team and the administration.
So, let’s take a look at few things SLC can do for this relationship to work, in other words not to make a ”Hathura” out of Hathurusingha;
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1. Freehand –
When Hathurusingha took the job in Bangladesh, his first move was to challenge the stance of Bangladesh’s most valuable player in Shakib Al Hasan. Shakib was playing in the CPL when Hathurusingha was appointed the coach. He refused to come back to Bangladesh by the deadline ”Hathura” had given him and threatened to retire from international cricket. However, Bangladesh Cricket Board has backed Hathurusingha to the end, and Shakib had to come back. And Shakib continued to play and shine for Bangladesh under Hathurusingha’s command.
This incident could provide few lessons to SLC when it comes to working with Hathurusingha. First, It is clear Chandika is not a person afraid of taking actions against anyone – regardless of their fame. And more importantly, SLC should take note of the way how BCB had fully supported the man in charge without interfering with their ideas. Also, how Shakib and Bangladesh had developed in collaboration is a testimony to Chandika’s decision making and man management skills.
Hence, first and foremost SLC should do with Hathurusingha is to give him a Freehand and wholehearted support to make decisions and then stick to those.
2. Selections –
A building is only as good as its foundation; Same applies to a team. If the building is the team, it’s foundation has to be the set of core players. Hence selections are as important as any other aspect of the team. Doesn’t matter how good your coach is unless you have a talented group of players.
Picking a talented group of players isn’t enough for a team to build a winning combination. You need to give them enough time to get used to the team environment as well as time to adjust to the needs of it. The Selectors – who have experience in playing the game – should be able to trust their judgements on selections and keep faith in those selected players regardless of public or political pressure.
And it is not a secret that Sri Lanka had suffered because of the selections and selection policy in the recent past. If selectors don’t learn from the past mistakes they made with talented players like Dhanajaya De Silva and Kusal Mendis, the appointment of Hathurusingha will be another move of no value to Sri Lankan cricket.
3. Support Staff (Batting/Bowling/Fielding, ”A” team Coaches) –
While there is very little doubt about Chandika Haturusingha’s ability as a coach, he won’t be able to take Sri Lanka out of the mud by himself; Chandika is going to need a strong, and skilled support staff.
On the batting front, Chandika and Thilan, newly appointed batting coach, posses an enormous amount of knowledge for the national batsmen to learn. However, the same can not be said about the levels underneath. So, it is a must for SLC to look at this area and develop qualified local batting coaches to take up the positions. It is Cricket board’s responsibility to help coaches with potential like with its players. Especially, ”A” team and emerging team coaches have to be updated with the modern technology, techniques and tactics.
Sri Lanka had always known for producing freakish talent with bowling from Murali to Malinga to Ajantha Mendis. These guys had very little to do with technique. They were exceptions to be true, even in the international cricketing world. And mostly, especially in their golden era, Sri Lankan attacks were based on the freakish talent like this.
It is easy to look at it and say that Sri Lanka has a lot of natural talent. However, it also shows the fact that Sri Lanka had been unable to produce quality, but orthodox(not freakish) bowlers. It is not a secret that lack of facilities and lack of quality coaching at the grassroots levels are the main reasons.
Not only that, SLC will have to look into national level bowling coaches as well. Not to undermine the services current and previous bowling coaches had done, but looking at recent results, it is becoming inevitable that Sri Lanka needs new and better qualified and experienced people even at the national level.
4. Coach/ Manager Agreement –
When Graham Ford left the country in a hurry – surely there were other reasons – but the decision to resign had come after a disagreement between the manager and the coach. The result was the young Sri Lankan team losing one of the top coaches in the world.
This time around, it is SLC’s extra responsibility to make sure something like that won’t happen again. Both manager and coach should be given clear instructions on their jobs and should not let their jobs interfere each other. If not, it will not be long before Hathurusinga and Gurusingha part ways.
5. Domestic Level –
There were many reasons given for Sri Lanka’s abysmal year of 2017. While the players and the administrators should have taken equal responsibility, it was harsh when the same administration came out publically to lay the blame on players.
There is no doubt that the players should take responsibility for their actions on the field. However, administrators also have to accept the fact that the players are only as good as the system that had produced them.
Hence, SLC administrators must stop blaming the products of their own system – the national players in this case – and should use that invaluable time wisely to organize a much better domestic circuit sooner rather than later.
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If Sri Lanka Cricket improves – for the sake of country’s cricket – to provide Chandika Hathurusingha with an honest and a strong backing, there is still a great chance of Sri Lankan flag flying high – before not too long. Maybe as soon as in 2019 World Cup.
