N ANANTHANARAYANAN

Sri Lanka pace bowler Lasith Malinga feels the cricketloving nation should rally around the young players in the struggling national squad if they want it to turn things around.

The 34-year-old slinger took his 300th ODI wicket on Thursday but it was cold comfort in a 168-run thumping at the hands of India. The visitors lead 4-0 with a game to go.

The slump is unthinkable given how an entire generation of players --- Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Muttiah Muralitharan --- had kept Sri Lanka on top even some time back. Sangakkara, in fact, is still blasting runs in the Caribbean Premier League.

Malinga said the loss of seasoned players rather than weak domestic cricket – experts blame the structure doesn’t provide an ideal step-up between school cricket and international cricket – was to be blamed.

“Our problems are because we lost a generation of players. If that generation was here, we wouldn’t have an inexperienced team like this. We had players like Chamara Silva, Thilina Kandamby, Jehan Mubarak, Malinga Bandara, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Kaushal Weeraratne, Tharanga Paranavitana and Malinda Warnapura.

“They played about 10 years of domestic cricket by the time they were 29 or 30, and played internationals for two or three years,

Our problems are because we lost a generation of players. If that generation was here, we wouldn’t have an inexperienced team like this.