Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

How to improve our cricket

- Lasantha Rodrigo Former Sri Lanka Cricketer

As far as I know, every year, various cricketers spell out ideas to reform and build up our future

Cricketers, from among the juniors.

This vision came up when we won the World

Cup in 1996. Arjuna

Ranatunga had ideas of doing this, but due to the formation, at various times, of interim committees, this vision never came into being. Now, again the administra­tion wants to start an Under

(U)-13 and U-15 programme to build up our future National Cricket.

Will these programmes keep changing every year due to various pressures that come upon the administra­tion or, changes in the administra­tions? This is like the administra­tion changing the national coaches at various times.

As Cricket enthusiast­s, are we to keep waiting until a miracle happens to make Sri Lanka cricket the best in the world. Great Cricketers like Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Sidath Wettimuny, Ranjith Fernando and Mahela Jayawarden­a to name a few, have many times advised the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) how to improve our Cricket, but end up in poor results, the reason for this being unknown.

Hence, the SLC should concentrat­e on building up among cricketers at premier level competitio­ns. My cricket, I developed not by playing school cricket, but by playing for SSC, with stalwarts who played National Cricket.

As building up cricket at school level should be done at district level, where the SLC should appoint former cricketers with coaching knowledge to each district, and play matches against each other at district level. It is not necessary for SLC to extend all their resources on school cricket. Cricketers build up their cricket only at club level.

The Sunday Times has decided to dedicate this column to its readers so that they can comment about contents in our sports columns and features and also write their own thoughts on various sports with letters to the editor.Their views however are not necessaril­y those of the newspaper.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Sri Lanka