RIP SL cricket thread

[Himannv]

nah mate, some of the "pitches" that are served up across the SC from time to time are not conducive to cricket. even myself as a bowler, I don't want to see pitches which are inconsistent from the get go. It just happens that higher bounce usually accompanies truer bounce and doesn't help spin early doors.

But on selection, there is no reason even on a true pitch you couldn't pick only spin bowlers. if they are better than the quicker options they will be tighter, and create wickets even out of frustration rather than bowling poor bowlers who leak runs and lack the skill to bowl to a plan and get top level batsmen out. Pakistan is another team that I can't get my head around, playing a bloke who will bowl 5-10 overs per test, it's a waste of space.

Fair enough. I admit I'm a bit hard-arsed about pitches generally and dislike players complaining about them when they're hard to bat on. Not having a go at foreign players either as Sri Lankans are guilty of this sort of thing more often than not. I think very highly of players like Clarke and Hussey who batted incredibly on some very difficult pitches down here. For me it's the mark of a great batsman to be able to play well even on difficult surfaces and conditions.

Regarding coming into a test match with four spinners on foreign pitches, I'm not sure how effective it would be although I admit it might be worth a try. Herath is probably our best test spinner at the moment and he hasn't exactly been a massive threat in Australia so I'm unsure how well the others would do on that sort of surface. I think the selection of all these fast bowlers is partially based on some hope that they would one day turn out to be good test bowlers. It's the "Rome wasn't built in a day" type of approach but I'm not particularly confident that it would work.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Wrong meme. Should be Fry.

 

[Scaly piscine]

I do worry about the health of Test cricket.

India are increasingly pathetic. Sri Lanka have a pathetic bowling line-up. Pakistan are a decent side but can't play at home, New Zealand will be regularly humiliated. West Indies are ordinary. Bangladesh are still Bangladesh and Zimbabwe lost to New Zealand.

The emphasis on shorter-form cricket makes me wonder whether some of these sides will raise their game in the next few years. We need more competitive series even if ultimately teams end up losing regularly. Too many games are a no contest, increasingly players and team cbf fighting it out in Test cricket.

 

[Cevno]

Bit of a overreaction this.

Wasn't India worse in Australia or equally bad ?

 

[benchmark00]

Already had the funeral for Indian cricket.

 

[Himannv]

Bit of a overreaction this.

Wasn't India worse in Australia or equally bad ?

India have better batsmen coming through compared to Sri Lanka, although the bowling is similarly useless.

 

[Furball]

Bit of a overreaction this.

Wasn't India worse in Australia or equally bad ?

People like Sri Lanka.

 

[Cabinet96]

India at least have a much brighter future though. They have loads of young batsmen who will be at least decent test bats and guys like Yadav are young.

nah mate, some of the "pitches" that are served up across the SC from time to time are not conducive to cricket. even myself as a bowler, I don't want to see pitches which are inconsistent from the get go. It just happens that higher bounce usually accompanies truer bounce and doesn't help spin early doors.

But on selection, there is no reason even on a true pitch you couldn't pick only spin bowlers. if they are better than the quicker options they will be tighter, and create wickets even out of frustration rather than bowling poor bowlers who leak runs and lack the skill to bowl to a plan and get top level batsmen out. Pakistan is another team that I can't get my head around, playing a bloke who will bowl 5-10 overs per test, it's a waste of space.

The issue is, it's not as if Sri Lanka have heaps of world class spinners who aren't making the side ahead of these seamers. Herath is the only spinner in the country who would probably be in the top 10 in the world, and Randiv has only been doing a decent support act for Herath in Sri Lanka. Do you really think Sri Lanka playing Randiv and Mendis would have seriously helped the Sri Lankan cause in Hobart and Melbourne? I doubt it myself.

 

[NasserFan207]

May as well rename the thread to "Doom and Gloom".

Yeah fair enough, was in a bad mood last night and felt like exaggerating

 

[SeamUp]

Really liked Bhanuka Rajapaksa at the u19 WC in NZL in 2010. Surprised he hasn't got more of a look-in for Sri Lanka yet. Struggling domestically ?

 

[Prince EWS]

Really liked Bhanuka Rajapaksa at the u19 WC in NZL in 2010. Surprised he hasn't got more of a look-in for Sri Lanka yet. Struggling domestically ?

Nah he's been going pretty well, middle order batting isn't really an area they need to randomly blood someone right at this minute though when you consider Chandimal can't even get into the full strength team yet.

 

[SeamUp]

Nah he's been going pretty well, middle order batting isn't really an area they need to randomly blood someone right at this minute though when you consider Chandimal can't even get into the full strength team yet.

Fair point. I mentioned the batting because of the 4 35+ now in top 5 needs to be addressed.

They did drop Samaraweera briefly. I think they will have to do it again now. They can't not bleed young middle order batsmen anymore due to the main middle order 3 because guys like Chamdimal and Rajapaksa need to bat with Sangakara's and Jayawardene's before they retire.

They've never had quality seam bowling options. Can only think of Vaas so its nothing new to them. They've always continually chopped and changed there with Fernando, Zoysa, Wickramasignhe etc & Prasad, Lakmal , Pradeep & Eranga now. So their seam bowling situation hasn't changed much over the last 20-30 years. Vaas was a big loss though so they need to try and share work load there more than in the past because they don't have a Vaas now.

The big situation is that they don't have a freak like Murali anymore but its not like Herath has been poor. But they probably need to find another major bowling weapon to share major workload with Hearth and the others must chip in.

 

[Himannv]

Really liked Bhanuka Rajapaksa at the u19 WC in NZL in 2010. Surprised he hasn't got more of a look-in for Sri Lanka yet. Struggling domestically ?

I'd rather bring him into the limited over sides first and see how he goes there. He's quite an aggressive batsman and can dominate the bowling if he gets going. However, consistency has never been his strong point and I wouldn't say he's technically perfect. Having said that, he was the best young talent in his age group and I'm sure he will play international cricket at some point.

 

[uvelocity]

The issue is, it's not as if Sri Lanka have heaps of world class spinners who aren't making the side ahead of these seamers. Herath is the only spinner in the country who would probably be in the top 10 in the world, and Randiv has only been doing a decent support act for Herath in Sri Lanka. Do you really think Sri Lanka playing Randiv and Mendis would have seriously helped the Sri Lankan cause in Hobart and Melbourne? I doubt it myself.

well over their first string attack, probably not. Reckon I'd have welegedera, eranga, herath and mendis if I was picking their side. Pradeep was terrible the bits and pieces I saw, some of the balls MJ would be ashamed of But I do have the opinion at a more basic level that if your spinners are going to do a better job than your quicks, just go with spinners, a few sides don't seem to consider that option though.

 

[Cevno]

India have better batsmen coming through compared to Sri Lanka, although the bowling is similarly useless.

We need like 4/5 batsman together right now though. Your more experienced players still have a couple of seasons to go probably except Samarweera plus Chandimal is in reserves alongside others, so it's not that bad.

Bowling yeah, looks bad for both. We have Yadav who's promising, i guess and you guys have Herath who has improved considerably.

 

[lionheart]

Samaraweera has to be dropped. I'd consider dropping Prassana Jayawardene just to let Chandimal continue and with Sangakarra's eventual retirement from the short forms in mind.

Karunarathne, Thirimanne, Rajapaksa need to play as many games as possible.

Angelo Matthews is a myth. He can't bat. He can't bowl. I'd rather have Thisara Perera be the all arounder in the side. How Matthews succeeds as captain I have no idea.

The bowling stocks are dire.

Eranga will need to be the anchor of the attack. Welegedara will never be anything but a) erratic, and b) injured. If Lakmal can be tought to use his height and bowl a decent length outside off with some semblance of consistency, he'd be handy.

The selectors need to swallow their pride and realise that there is no point picking a third seamer just because it's the norm. Play two spinners. Randiv, as little as I rate him, is infinitely more likely to trouble opposition the world over than our dubious pace merchants.

The coaching is a huge worry. Ford has brought nothing. The game plans seem non-existent. There is no desciplin, nor any desire to comptete.

 

[benchmark00]

Peter Siddle posting from the celebrations.

 

[Flem274*]

Mathews is the only Sri Lankan batsman I've seen who has any remote idea against the swinging ball. Compulsive hooker and throws away after passing fifty but you can't drop the bloke

 

[Jono]

Test cricket should revolve around Australia and England. If the Ashes weren't so big test cricket probably wouldn't be around these days.

Nah. Should revolve around Australia and South Africa.

Agree that test cricket is horrible right now. So uncompetitive. At any point in time there are only 3-4 good teams. Even before sure Lanka may have been better a while back but maybe Pakistan were **** then, or a while before that England.

Australia and South Africa the only consistent teams.

 

[Cabinet96]

Tbf, the number five side whitewashed the number one side just a year ago. I'd say South Africa aren't as far ahead of the pack as many think.