Amidst the fallout from the Sri Lanka team’s ignominious exit from the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the country’s cricketing public are waiting with bated breath to see whether the game’s keepers will purge the shorter format teams along with the managements to signal the dawn of a new era.
Sri Lanka are currently ranked seventh in Tests and ODIs respectively, while being placed eighth in T20 cricket, as they strive hard to ward off a fierce social media backlash over their limp showing in the T20 showpiece in the Americas.
Public anger has escalated to such an extent that the national team, which arrived in the country on Wednesday (19) after being eliminated from the World Cup, was forced to exit the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) via the VIP enclosure instead of the normal departure route, fearing reprisals from irate fans.
Cricket analysts are of the view that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will be compelled to radically overhaul the shorter format teams along with those occupying managerial and coaching posts before moving forward in the interim.
This is in light of the team’s continuing inept displays in International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments, in order to placate the anger of the spectators and allegations of serious breaches of team discipline when on tour, now a norm rather than an exception with the side.
Team curfew
Former Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe has publicly alleged that certain players had either intentionally or unintentionally broken team curfews imposed while on tour in the US.
He has claimed that he has evidence to prove his charges to this effect and questioned the failure of the manager to rein in his players during their off-duty hours while on an assignment as important as the World Cup.
This is due to their continuing off-the-field indiscretions, which the lawmaker asserted had directly impacted the team’s performance, with last year’s Men’s ODI World Cup in India being another stark reminder of the team’s wayward ways.
SLC is so far yet to officially deny this allegation of the former Minister, who paid a severe price for his efforts to rid the Maitland Place-situated body of its corrupt elements by being shown the door by no less a figure than the Head of State late last year.
Violation of team discipline has been a common theme with the men’s team since 2021. One famous case in point was the breaking of the Covid-19 bio-bubble by Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella, and Danushka Gunathilaka during an ODI tour in England.
Another incident that raised eyebrows of long-suffering fans was batter Gunathilaka being alleged to have been engaged in ‘stealthing’ involving a Tinder date in Sydney in November 2022 during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
However, the cricketer was found not guilty of the accusation directed at him in September 2023.
Engulfed by controversy
Regardless, this was another farcical episode in a long list of controversies that has engulfed the team and its players lately.
The situation has now reached boiling point from the perspective of the paying public as the players tend to behave akin to demigods by virtue of the unprecedented luxuries accorded to them irrespective of whether they deliver or not on the field.