I agree with you, Stormy. Politics aside, our selectors, even those who are appointed on merit, struggle to read the game. That’s a huge issue.

Thank you, Stormy for your
Thank you, Stormy for your comment. The point I was trying to make was that Sri Lanka is not actually trying to score runs in Test matches. The reason for their poor shot selection is the pressure that they allow to mount on themselves owing to their inability/apathy to rotate the strike. I feel that the management is actually encouraging the batsmen to be more conservative. You can see that clearly in the way we bat in the shorter formats.

Thanx UC
Thanx UC

I won’t be blaming Vaas. He
I won’t be blaming Vaas. He has done well. But everything else must change.

I won’t agree with any of
I won’t agree with any of your points, save for the last one- no one can brainwash your, since you have none. First of all read the article. There have been many Tamils who represented Sri Lanka at the highest level other than Mathews, Arnold and Murali.

You ignorance shows that you nothing about Sri Lanka cricket. Sridharan Jeganathan, Vinothan John, Neil Chanumgam, Devn Chanmugam, Jayaprakashdaran, Sathasivam and I can go on.

And what kind of problem did Mathews undergo? He was the U19 captain, was fast tracked into the national side and he is the captain of the current side.

You are just another diaspora wanker who has a fetish for representing the minorities as victims and hence, trying to reap the perks sympathies engender.

You are a betrayer who gains everything a normal Sri Lankan is entitled to but tries using discrimination as an excuse to vindicate your aversion towards Sri Lanka.

@UT Yeah :v on that
@UT Yeah :v on that awkwardness. But as you say it is not homophobic. Had it not been for those facebook pages, I don’t think it would have become a problem.

May be, this should not be done again.

PS: Remember that “f**k” placard in Sinhalese?

Well, I am not against
Well, I am not against homosexuality. And homosexuality isn’t wrong or offensive either. But I can’t think of this placard as something being offensive to the homosexuals. In my view, this had no intentional meaning. It was just one man holding a placard in Sinhalese and posing for a photo to amuse Sri Lankans, exclusively.
I don’t think it was intended to abuse anyone. He was not even in the TV. ( I wonder whether he would have shown the placard had he been on TV). It was just another Facebook thing

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I agree with Hilal. Spinners
I agree with Hilal. Spinners are our strength. Just look at India’s three wins hitherto. Against Pakistan, it was the spinners who strangulated the Pakistani batsmen. Against South Africa it was once again the spinners. Against UAE, Ashwin picked up 4 wickets.

I think we need to play Thisara at number 7 and play an extra spinner, in Sachithra. Dilshan should bowl between 10-25 overs. Herath and Sachithra should do the bulk of the bowling during the death. In the huge grounds of Australia, hitting a spinner out would need a lot of skills. Unless you are a Virat or ABD, no one can clear the ropes consistently against the slow bowlers.

I am also not happy with the wide yorker tactics. It has become more predictable now. The other day against Jos Butler, both third man and fine leg were sent back and Lakmal bowled wide yorkers at him. All what Butler did was to move his back foot out of the off stump and slog Lakmal down the ground. If you are going to set a field to a fast bowler, the batsman can easily predict the kind of line/length the bowler is going to bowl just by looking at the field, which is not the case with a spinner.

In NZ, playing a spinner at the death is a risk, owing to the small grounds. But in Australia, we can do that with minimum risk.

Moreover, the Lankan bowlers have bowled decently well. They have hit the yorker length, but the bottom heavy bats have ‘pushed’ them through gaps for fours. Sri Lanka should be more creative during the death rather than just trying to hit the blockhole.

@HumbleBee
A very high
@HumbleBee
A very high average doesn’t account for consistency. I agree! It is the frequency that does- again I agree.

But a high frequency should beget a very high average too, shouldn’t it?
In other words, Tharanga’s century scoring frequency is 1/13 approximately.
So if someone is going to score a century in every 13 games he needs to have a high average to be deemed consistent.

If Tharanga is someone who would score a century and score thirties in the next 12 games before making another century, then I would call him consistent. But between those centuries, he gets out for meagre returns.

In other words, there is a different between a player who scores 30 in every game and a player who scores a century and then follows it up with scores of around 10 runs.

Yes, frequency, as you said is a good measure, but I would be happy to measure the frequency of 30s and 40s scored than centuries to determine someone’s consistency.

I don’t despise Tharanga. The problem I have with him is that he is not technically sound to counter the moving ball. Yes, many of the past Sri Lankan openers have not had great technique but they atone it by aggressive batting. Tharanga is neither an aggressor nor a technically sound batsman. But he can be a very good middle order player who can hold things together in the middle.