Generation’

Lanka standin skipper feels new players need to get experience ahead of 2019 World Cup

and then were out of the international scene. We lost that 10-12 years of experience from them. It’s really hard to get that experience from a fresh-out-of-school cricketer or a club cricketer.

“The loss of that generation is being felt in our cricket. If they had still been here – I don’t know why we lost them – we would have had the ability to field six or seven experienced players in the team,” he said referring to his own debut in 2004.

“Now our cricket has declined. We are hoping to go to the World Cup and I hope we’ll be able to take the cricketers who are here now. We should all try to make that happen.

NEED FOR PERSPECTIVE Facing a volley of questions from the Sri Lankan media, Malinga still urged perspective. “It’s when you get experience at international level that you understand how to handle difficult situations. A lot of our players are inexperienced, though they get their places because they perform at domestic level. If we gave some chance to the young players, we will get players who can play for a long time,” he said, talking in Sinhalese.

“If we can give them experience for the team that goes to the 2019 World Cup, then you will have players who have played 30-50 ODIs.

“In previous teams, you had players who had played a 100 ODIs, or at least 50. We need that. Every other team in the world has that experience in their XI. We need to get there. We need to give the young players some more matches and get them to the place we need them to be. That’s what’s important.”