‘You can’t just turn up and win World Cups’ – Mahela Jayawardena

Sri Lanka’s Consultant Coach, Mahela Jayawardena says that bowling forms the foundation to win championships and the absence of country’s premier strike bowlers, Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera has come to haunt them during the ongoing World Cup in India.

Jayawardena, a Sri Lankan great who led Sri Lanka to the 2007 50-over World Cup finals, shared these thoughts ahead of Sri Lanka’s third game against Australia at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow tomorrow.

“I feel championships are won with bowling, not so much with batting,” said the 45-year-old former skipper.

“So, you need to build that bowling unit. So that’s the path that we’ve taken. Hopefully, we keep all these guys fit and healthy going forward”.

Hasaranga and Chameera were both ruled out of the tournament due to injuries, forcing cricket selectors to turn to a less experience attack who would never have made to the team, if Hasaranga and Chameera were fit.

“We did not plan for guys like (Dunith) Wellalage and Matheesha (Pathirana) to have big roles in this World Cup. We wanted them to come into the squad and be part of the experience so that they would be played in certain situations only.”

“Wanindu and Dushmantha would have been the two main guys, so then we would have had a great attack. Dilshan (Madushanka) has come a long way as a left-arm fast bowler and we’re very happy to have him because he’s a brilliantly skilled bowler. I see a lot of potential in him because he’s still raw. But every day, he’s learning and he’s a quick learner. If we can keep this group together, we will have the right component,” Jayawardena opined.

In the absence of two seniors, Sri Lanka had no option but to throw their young bowlers to deep end. This proved costly as they were taken to the cleaners by South African and Pakistan batters, conceding as many as 773 runs off 98.2 overs.

“This group, they played two T20 World Cups together and this is their first 50-over World Cup. We had seven guys who played their first 50-over World Cup game. Yes, it might be tough sometimes for us, but I think this group has shown that they have the potential by winning an Asia Cup in the T20 format, getting into an Asia Cup final in the 50-over format because we had to play two strong teams in Pakistan and India,” he added.

Jayawardena said with two back-toback T20 World Cups during the last two years, the focus solely was on the shorter format and they have enjoyed a decent progress in the format.

“In the last two T20 World Cups, I was a part of the team. We missed those semi-finals by one game. It was just one win, we’ve missed out against South Africa in the UAE and then against New Zealand in Sydney. So those are the two games that we should have won and otherwise, we would have been in the semi-finals. So we are close. But we just need to make sure that we back these guys and get them over the line,” Jayawardena stressed.

According to Jayawardena, Sri Lanka cricket is on the right path and within the next few years, the results will follow as they have placed the right structure in place.

“You’re not going to win an Olympic medal by just going into the Olympics straight away,” he said.

“You have to plan for 10 years to win an Olympic medal with someone, you have to spend money on that person, and you have to invest in that plan. So for us to win another World Cup, we have to plan, we have to build to win a World Cup, it’s not going to just come like that.”

“Apart from Australia who won three World Cups in-a-row in 1999, 2003, and 2007, no other team has been able to achieve that. So that means you have to spend time on building teams, giving that experience getting the skill set, adding the missing pieces in between, and winning a World Cup. You can’t just turn up and win World Cups. You might be lucky if that happens, but you can’t do everything for luck, right? So you need to have a plan and consistency. Continuity is the key, which I feel and hopefully going forward we will have that at that decision-making level, especially when it comes to the cricketing side of it,” Jayawardena said.

Jayawardena outlined that planning for this World Cup should have done soon after the 2019 edition but unfortunately it did not happen.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t have a genuine plan after the 2019 World Cup, for how we were going to play in 2023, that’s where the problem was. Yes, Covid happened as well, we hardly played any 50-over cricket. Investment of players and all that was also not there,” he said.

“We started planning after the last T20 World Cup on how we’re going to play the next T20 World Cup in 2024 and that plan has been in place. We know exactly how we’re going to move on and what changes we’re going to make and all that has already been put in place. We didn’t want to do that because we were focusing on the 50-over World Cup,” he added.

Jayawardena is of the view that Sri Lanka should starts its preparation for the next 50-over World Cup soon after the conclusion of this edition, creating a group of core players who will go on to play the next World Cup.

“Play this World Cup positively and give ourselves our best chance to get into the semi-finals and try and win it. But if not, soon after this is finished, we need to plan for the next cycle and then have a proper plan in place. What are the pieces we need? And who are the players and then invest in those players, give them the exposure, give them the experience and game time.”

“Because for every World Cup, you need guys to have played at least 30 to 40 ODIs minimum. So that’s like 10 or 15 ODIs every year. That’s the kind of experience you need. When we went into World Cups, the guys we had, the experience was 350 to 400 ODIs, 350, that’s the level that you’re talking about. And that’s a difference,” he concluded.